The Ramsey Show - App - Learn When to Let Your Foot off the Gas (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 2, 2019

Debt, Home Selling, Budgeting, Savings, Home Buying   Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: http://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: http://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: http://bit.ly/2QEyonc Interview Guide: http://bit.ly/2BuGnZE Check out other podcasts in the Ramsey Network: http://bit.ly/2JgzaQR 

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Starting us off this hour is going to be Scott in Canada. Hey, Scott, how are you? Good.

How are you making out? Better than I deserve, sir. What's up? Hey, John. Well, I just want to thank you for Financial Peace University. It's definitely saved us. Cool. A couple years ago, we got a whole bunch of consumer debt

and ended up having to do a consumer proposal. And then we founded a root year course and our church actually put it on in February. Cool. And we have managed to pay off close to $50,000 since February. Great. Yes. And in that time, I got injured at work and I was on workers' compensation. I'm not sure if you guys have that in the States or not. We do. Okay. So I was on that. I've been

on that for a year and recently they just cut me off. So I'm going to have zero income. My wife is a nurse who works part time and we do have the money in our savings right now to pay off the remainder $10,000 of that proposal, and it will be completely gone. All we'll have left is our mortgage. How much is in savings total? In total, there is $9,000, but we have $2,700 in our checking. Okay, so you could clear the debt, but you'd be out of money. Yes. So when are you going back to work? Well, that's the thing.

I'm still disabled, but they just made the decision that it wasn't a work-related injury after a year. Yeah. So it's going to be a battle with them as well. What's the nature of your disability? It's my hip. I need a hip replacement, but I'm too young, and they don't want to do that. What, Canadian health care doesn't want to do it or what? The doctors.

They say I'm just too young, and they just don't know what to do with me. How old are you? 32. I got a 29-year-old on our team just did a hip replacement here. Yeah, and he probably feels great. Yeah, he does. He's in good shape. So it doesn't make any sense at all.

I guess it's just Canadian health care or something. I don't know how that stuff works. Okay. That's crazy. at all. I guess it's just Canadian healthcare or something. I don't know how that stuff works. Okay. I know. What were you doing? What were you doing for a living? I was a fiber technician for a subcontractor for Bell.

We'd install internet and TV and things like that. If you did a hip replacement, you would go back to that after healing? Well, I technically could. The doctors say I shouldn't because it'll wear out the hip faster. Gotcha. What would you do? What's your plan?

What is your long-term career goal? Well, we'd probably like to retrain me and maybe get into another technical field, I would say. Okay. Like what and when? Well, that's the thing. We need money to go to school, so we've got to figure that out. And, you know, it's hard when you're in this much pain all the time to concentrate too, so you need to get fixed to be able to concentrate

to be able to go to school. That makes sense. I understand. Yeah. Okay. Do you have children? Yes, two. What ages? They are six and eight. Okay. Well, it sounds like your wife's going to be working as a

full-time nurse for right now. Yeah, right now she's part-time. I know, but you guys aren aren't gonna be able to eat on that so we've got to get your income up short term and then we've got to get it up long term and once i've got that figured out then i write the check and i'm debt free but today you might need this 10 grand so just hold on to it yeah i would just i would just stop your total money makeover stop your baby steps right now and let's just sit on this and i don't want you to burn through it i want you to create an income from her and you her short term

and you long term you know maybe she ends up maybe she ends up working a year or two while you are healing and getting retooled and then you know you you go back to work and she comes back home. But that's probably how this is going to go down, something like that. So but you guys have got to establish a steady income that is predictable for your family. Once you do that, then you would restart your baby steps and you'd knock your debts out. But for today, we need to hoard cash because we have a mess. And that's what I would do. Sorry you're facing this, man. I know that pain must be incredible.

I'm so sorry. All right, Phillip is with us in California. Hi, Phillip. How are you? Better than I deserve, Dave. How are you doing? Just the same, sir. How can I help?

Yeah, so my situation is that I just got a home, and we ended up putting just about 5% from the loan value. But about two years ago, I ended up getting married with my wife, and she had equity, and it's close to half of its, paid off to half of its equity. So my question is, would it be best to sell that house or to rent it out now that we're living in our new home? I would sell it. Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. You guys don't have any money. You put down 5%, so you have no money. That's what that tells me.

And so owning a rental property when you're broke is a bad idea. Owning a rental property when you have some cash and you get yourself and you start building some wealth that you pay cash for the rental property is a great idea. But you did not start this out as a rental property when you have some cash and you get yourself and you start building some wealth that you pay cash for the rental property is a great idea but you did not start this out as a rental property it just ended up being a rental property by default and so i wouldn't keep it it's not going to be a blessing to you it's going to be a drain with where you all are right now and so you're going to be much better off to have that cash be debt free start working on your emergency fund start working on your 15 of your income going into free start working on your emergency fund start working on your 15 of your income going into retirement start working on your kids college and then start working on paying down

your house and i would do all of those things with the sale of this house so hope that's helpful to you open phones at 888-825-5225 y'all in, we'll talk about your life and your money. Did you know that actually putting your goals on paper is the first step to making them actually happen? Yeah, it's not magic. When you write down your goals, it's where you start. It's not magic, but it's the first step to unleashing the power to get it done. It's powerful. And that's why I'm excited to tell you about this brand new 2020 gold planner from Christy Wright, Ramsey personality,

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It is a massive, spiral-bound, very high-end. You will completely be blown away with how powerful this is for you ladies. The 2020 Gold Planner. Check it out at DaveRamsey.com or BusinessBoutique.com. Folks, let's cut through the bull. Interest rates are exceptionally low, so you're missing out if you have not called Churchill Mortgage to see if you can save money on your home loan. Lots of other companies are out there claiming great deals, but don't get lured by slick advertisements. No-cost refinance offers do not mean they're free. Churchill Mortgage has a no-bull refinance. This means there are no hidden fees. They will shoot straight with you. Yes, Churchill can offer loans with no closing costs, different down payment options, or, of course, a traditional refinance.

The key difference is you can trust my friends at Churchill to let you know what you're getting up front so you can make the smartest choice and save the most money. Go to churchillmortgage.com. Do it today while rates are low. This is a paid advertisement. NMLS ID 1591. NMLSconsumeraccess.org. Equal housing lender. 761 Old Hickory Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. james is with us in michigan welcome to the dave ramsey show james do my call how can i help sir hey so um unfortunately um i'm right in the middle of uh

number five here and uh i had a had a a divorce happen that just finalized last month. So I feel like my plans have essentially flown down big time because not only has my income dropped due to losing the spouse's income, but I also have child support payments to top it. So my expenses have increased and my mortgage has also increased, but you know, there's, there's no debt, no, you know, student loans, no credit cards, no car payments, anything like that. Um, my question is, is, uh, I guess I don't see that I'll be able to realistically, you know, like give, give my kids a free ride. They're, they're 10 and 11. Um, if, if i keep going just the way i'm going now

right now i can only afford to drop anywhere from 200 to 400 a month depending on the month into their college funds um for for the two of them um so i just don't know if i should continue doing that or or take that money and kind of invest it into myself and get more certifications um in in my field and see if I can increase my income and put that on hold. So what do you make? $70,000 even. $70,000?

Yep. And how much is your house payment? It is $1,000 even. Okay. After escrow. Okay. And, well,000 even after escrow. Okay. And, well, that's not killing you. You don't have any other debts or any other payments.

What kind of certifications would you get and what would they cost? That's a problem. The certifications, it's the information security field. They're expensive. We're talking $4,000 to $5,000 per certification through an organization called SANS. Yeah, I'm familiar. Okay. I don't know why you can't do both.

Okay. Let me tell you what I think happened. Okay. When's the divorce final? It was final last month. month yep okay all right um unless you're a weird human going through a divorce is extremely painful and uh part of that is usually a broken heart and uh part of that is usually a broken heart and part of that is it affects our confidence and part of that is there's some grief involved what you thought was going to be your life with

this double income and the math that you had projected is all now not there and you have a new normal and you're still you're still emotionally adjusting to that which is makes you just like a normal guy okay i mean if you didn't have to emotionally adjust to that you'd be what's called a psychopath so um you know you need to you normal people hurt in situations like this and it does affect your uh your your the way you view the. There's more of a dark cloud on it when you're grieving. Is this like, it takes a lot of your energy away to go through all this stuff. So I suspect mathematically that you're better off than you feel like you are. That's what I was saying earlier. And I think by this time next year, you're going to feel a whole lot better

about your future, about you, uh, some of your healing, you know, if you continue to work spiritually and emotionally on just putting all this in the rearview mirror. And, you know, you start living on a budget and, you know, you're watching what you're doing. And, you know, you talk to your employer about possibly getting for some paying for some of your certs or you start saving up and paying for some of your certs. But I think your kids are going to be fine and i think you're going to be fine if you do not pay for 100 of their college uh that is not the end of the world when they go to school they can i'm going to say it out loud

they can work i just said it see i said right here on the radio people just fainted everywhere snowflakes melted all over america they can work and it won't hurt them at all i worked you probably worked most people worked when we were in school i worked 40 to 60 hours a week and got out in four years because I was paying for it. So you're not a bad dad if you pay for 75% of it and they work. Matter of fact, you might be the best dad on the planet if that happened. April is with us in Florida. Hey, April, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave.

Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Yeah, so when I was 15, my dad passed away and he left me with an inheritance and his wishes were for my aunt to not give me the money until i turned 25 well she gave me the money when i was 18 and within a year time the money had all disappeared and i'm sorry how did the money disappear you blew it um that's the thing i don't know there she called you're 18 how did you not know that i i asked for an accounting i used the money

uh to to pay for rent and to go to school okay stop okay stop She gave you the money seven years earlier than your dad wanted, right? Not in a lump sum. It was just occasionally. Here's $1,000 for your rent. Here's $1,000 for school that you paid for a month. But she would commingle the money from my account, my inheritance account, to her account. There was a time where she gave her daughter a loan and told me that she paid it back. For the last 10 years, I've been asking her, can I have an accounting for my money? And I still haven't received one. My question is, how can I go past her and get that accounting?

How can I find out? Okay, she's the only one that has the numbers. Yeah. She's the one that has the numbers. Yeah. She's the one that managed the money. She's the only source of information. Okay. So you think she stole it? I mean, I don't want to say that,

but I don't know why I haven't been provided an accounting. That's the only logical explanation. Because she's disorganized and a ditz. I mean, that's very possible. It's very possible you spent it all, but she didn't even manage to keep up with it to know what the flip was going on. She probably was not a good person to leave in charge of this. Is she kind of impulsive and flighty and disorganized? Very disorganized, yes.

So it's very possible she doesn't have an accounting. Man. Is that right? I mean, it's definitely possible. Yeah. Okay. So do you have any, the records that you have, do you show receiving anywhere near $100,000? No. that you have do you show receiving anywhere near a hundred thousand dollars uh no i mean the only thing that i can maybe think of is maybe sixty thousand so you don't have an accounting of

your stuff either no i mean i was 18 at the time not obviously the best with money still not the best with money and i I was given the money. I mean, that was a lot of money to be handed to me. Well, she didn't hand it to you. She doled it out. Yeah. And now it's all gone, and I have a family now, and I'm like, wow, that $100,000 could really help me right now.

No, you spent $60,000 of it. You spent $60,000 of it. You spent $60,000 of it. True. At least. You might have spent $80,000 because you're not sure you didn't do an accounting either. You were an adult. You were making adult decisions with money. You're responsible for this.

I don't think you have a right to blame her for this um she might have messed up i don't i doubt this lady's a crook um there might be 10 or 20 thousand dollars in play here but there's not a hundred thousand dollars in play and she didn't dump a hundred thousand on an 18 year old she doled it out to you and you don't have any idea what you did with it or if you really got it or not because you were so disorganized and flighty so um i'm sorry i don't think you're a victim um and i don't think she's evil i think you're both disorganized and neither one of you did a very good job of handling your dad's money that he left to you and that's sad but i don't think you can cop the position that somehow she's she's a cpa and she's got all these records in a vault where she

embezzled this money from you that's just not even close to what happened here the way you laid it out you know what i i would sit down with her over a cup of coffee and just say hey let's try to put this together so i can emotionally put this to bed in my mind. I'd like to know that I got all the money, but I don't know. Can you help me with that, please, so I can put this behind me? But I really wouldn't sue her over this because I don't think you've got a leg to stand on. Business leaders, if you're not using LinkedIn Jobs, you are missing out. Our Ramsey Solutions Company page on LinkedIn has over 100,000 followers. That's over 100,000 potential like-minded people our team communicates our current openings to. We also post on LinkedIn

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We're glad you're here. Katie is in Utah. Hey, Katie, welcome to The Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. I'm hesitant to ask my question because I don't want to come across as a whiny princess and get beat up. But my husband and I are having a little bit of a disagreement.

We've been on your plan for at least 10 years, maybe 11. And we're on baby steps four, five, and six. And my question is, is at what point can we start living like no one else? We've been 10 or 11 years living like no one else. We've been 10 or 11 years living like no one else, and we still have, our home is paid for, and we have a rental property that's paid for. You're on Baby Step 7 then, yeah. But we have two other rentals that we still owe some money. Oh, okay, I'm sorry. No, that's why we're not on 7.

You're right, okay. And we both hate, hate, hate debt, debt and we think about it and it just makes us sick that's kind of propelled us to this point but you know we still have three or four years left until they're paid off and my husband um you know we're almost there let's keep going and i'm tired i want some new furniture i you know i want to we drive old cars. Our house is needing some updates. You're not on the Dave Ramsey plan. Okay, you're on your husband's plan. When you're on baby steps four, five, and six, you're not at gazelle intensity.

Baby steps four, five, and six is you're putting 15% of your income into retirement. You're putting some money in your kid's college. You're starting to work on paying off your house. And during those baby steps, you let your foot off the gas, and you buy new furniture. You save up and pay for it, and you go on vacation. You save up and pay for it, and you move up in cars, and you save up and pay for it.

You guys are probably millionaires, and you're driving old cars. Yeah, our net worth is getting up there. I mean, I figured it out this morning and it's about 1.8. Yeah. Well, you're multimillionaires. We live on nothing. Yeah. So this is, you guys have taken this too austere.

You're supposed to be enjoying some of this money. Now, we don't want to do it to the point that we're irresponsible again and go back to the way other people live. That's not what I'm suggesting, and neither would either one of you. But you guys have had your foot too hard down on the gas, and I think you need to let it up. So what is your projection?

You said three years to pay off the rentals? Yes. And you have a $1.8 million net worth, and you're how old? 48. Way to go. Congratulations on that. That's incredible. And what's your household income? Our taxable income, including our rental income, is about $130,000. Okay. Now let me ask one more time. You said the rentals would pay off in about three years the way you're currently doing things, right? Yes. Okay, and what's the balance on the rentals? Total is $150,000. Okay, so $50,000 a year for three years.

Okay, here's what I would propose, that you take four years or five years to pay off the rentals and you insert $50,000 to $100,000 into lifestyle. Wow. Increased cars and increased furniture. There's nothing wrong with that. Hey, you're 48 years old. You're worth almost $2 million.

You don't have to live. You don't have to live like paupers. Okay. You did it. This is why I called. You did it. I didn't want to get beat up. You're not going to get beat up by me. This is how I called you did it you didn't want to get beat up you're not you're not gonna

get beat up by me this is not what i this is how i tell you to do it i mean this is okay you guys have been you you know and i appreciate that you've accomplished your goals and that's wonderful but um it it is not what we teach we teach that once you get to baby step four five and six i still want you to be working on these goals but you would add a year or two to the debt free goal on the houses or real estate in order to move up out of a you know a five thousand dollar junkie car when you're worth two million dollars you ought to be driving a twenty five thousand dollar car and enjoying your car easy got it easy and so to hear. And that's not irresponsible. Either one's not irresponsible.

What you've done is not irresponsible, and what I'm suggesting is not irresponsible. Now, if you said, okay, I'm not going to pay off these houses for 15 years, and I'm just going to blow all this money, no, that's not what none of us are talking about that. Okay? Right. And so don't let your husband get that negative reaction, and I will let you

and me talking about this because you're not being a princess you're being very reasonable okay thank you dave is that helpful super helpful yes appreciate you calling in and that helps a bunch of other people too because there's a lot of other people get confused about that now when you're on baby steps one through three where you got you know you're saving your emergency fund and you're getting out of debt everything but the house listen it is it's beans and rice and no whining you don't go buy new furniture and you don't go on vacation and you don't upgrade cars and you don't do any of that stuff you're broke until you have an emergency fund in place and you still and you're debt-free except your house you're officially broke and you act like broke people during that time.

You focus and you're engaged, and, you know, that is gazelle intensity. That is pedal to the metal. That is game on, baby, you know. And that's where most people are is in those first three baby steps. But once you get out of that and then you're debt-free, you have your emergency fund in place, and you're starting to invest for your retirement your kids college and you're starting with anything above that to put money over into the uh over into paying off your homes that's when

you let your foot off the gas it's time to save up and go on vacation take go on that cruise it's time to save up and buy a couch finally and it's time to save up and uh whatever the thing is that you wanted to do or things that you wanted to do or things that you wanted to do now don't consume all of that difference because we want to throw some of it at the house folks but she's far from that situation very far so hey thanks for the call very very good discussion valerie is in texas hi valerie welcome to the dave ramsey show hi dave how are you better than than I deserve. What's up? My daughter just started her sophomore year in college.

She has about $36,000 in a savings account. How? And her college education was paid for through her bachelor's degree. Her college education was paid for with her bachelor's degree. It's paid for through her bachelor's. Her education is paid for for four years. By who? My husband was military, and we gave her the GI Bill.

Oh, okay. And did they give you the money up front for the whole four years? No, we got her a start with $5,000. Where's the $36,000 come from? That didn't come from the military, did it? Right, no. $5,000 is from us, and the rest is from extra scholarships, scholarships and just things that we've applied for,

and it's that money that she's gotten for education that we're putting for savings because the GI Bill covered everything else. So let me get this straight. You guys saved money. She got scholarships and she got the GI Bill. I love you people. Yes. And she's going to school completely debt free.

What's this genius studying? Business. I love her. She's awesome. This is great. Thank you. This is so great. So we're expecting at this point for the next three years to be able to put about another $10,000 a year aside from scholarships.

So she's going to graduate with like $50,000 or $60,000. Yes, that's the plan. I love it. But what's not covered is master's degree and beyond. But I didn't want to leave this money sitting in savings. I do. I'm not sure what to do with it. I do.

I don't want to invest it. It's there to ensure that this genius gets her education done without any debt. In case one of these things stubbed its toe and fell, the government decided it was going to lose its mind and not do what it's supposed to do on the GI Bill or something happened with the university. I don't care. This is just an insurance policy. There's plenty of time for her to invest it after she's out of school.

Is she planning to do grad work? That's the plan. In what? MBA or what? Yes. Very good. Very good. Cool. Good for you. Man, that's amazing. Very good. Very good. Cool.

Good for you. Man, that's amazing. We'll just keep saving. Yeah, and just use that money for the MBA. I mean, but just let it sit there. What it'll make in the next couple of years isn't worth putting it at risk because what you've done such a good job of is piling up cash and situations around her so that she's able to do all of this 100% debt-free.

I want her to do all of that. And the day she graduates, she's going to have a pile of money there. And she won't have made much money on it over the next couple of years, but you're not going to make much money on it if you invest it anyway. The whole difference in what we're talking about might be $2,000 or $3,000. And it's just not worth it. Nah, you guys have done such a wonderful job. Way to go, Mom!

Woo! This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Our scripture of the day, James 1, 2, and 3. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. John Quincy Adams says, Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. You can find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings.

You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMSY to get the best deal. Rules and restrictions apply. Today's question is from Heather in Florida. What is your view on pet insurance? I own a dog who is an expensive breed that's known to have health problems. However, I've had him for almost a year. He's had no hereditary illnesses. I'm paying $80 a month

for accident illness and wellness. If I drop down to just accident, it's $25 a month. I'm on baby step two, and I don't want to get stuck with an unexpected vet bill either. What are your thoughts? Americans last year spent $70 billion on our pets. I love my dogs. They're part of our family. We baby talk to them. They roll over and wiggle their little tails.

And I've got grand dogs. All three of my kids have dogs. I love animals. I love dogs. Not much of a cat person, but I like dogs. They are dogs. As much as I love them, unless you're a multimillionaire, you don't spend $10,000 on a dog. And I love them and just shut up. You can send me all the hate mail you want to send me

but we've gotten so confused because we act like they're people they're not people they're an animal my wife grew up on the farm where they ate the animals that they raised and so her attachment to animals emotionally is nowhere near like mine i'm a big blubbering idiot every time i have to put one of them to sleep or something over the years and she's just looking at me like i'm a wuss because when you're on the farm animals die every day you eat them they die there's accidents that's just farm life and you you become attached to animals but you have a little little bit of different emotional understanding that they're actually animals so all of that to say you have an

emergency fund you have an income and you cover your your needs for luxuries which are pets out of your savings and out of your income. I do not endorse nor do I like pet insurance. If you cannot afford to pay for the vet bills for your dog, you should not get a dog. Or a cat, you should not get a cat. You're not ready to raise one yet. You don't have the money. And so in your case, Heather, you've already got the dog. You have the money and so in your case heather you've already got

the dog you have a thousand dollars in the bank you have your income your baby step one's a thousand dollars if your dog's repairs are more than a thousand dollars you got to think about this dog in your situation now if you're worth 20 million dollars and your dog needs five thousand dollars and you want to spend that on them that's fine but it's a dog so now i wouldn't carry pet insurance and i'd have my thousand dollar emergency fund and after that i'd have to make hard decisions and look at what's going on in the real situation here and figure out a way to cover it with other income or whatever but and i'm not heartless and i'm not some mean old guy that doesn't understand i understand but i also understand some of you people out there have lost

your freaking minds on the way you treat this subject you're just dumber than a rock you're out of control and it's it's totally emotional and you think i'm an old meanie or something and i'm some kind of old grouch or something i'm not i just grew up in a generation where we understand that animals are different than people they are and i you know i'm on my 10th dog and i'm that i'm that old, so I've seen them come and go. And I'm not on my 10th kid. I only got three of them, and all three made it, okay? So, I mean, it's a different kind of thing there.

It's a different situation. Taking care of your kids is a completely different discussion than taking care of your dogs, or it should be. So, that sounds awfully rough and awfully mean to some of you people, and I'm fine. Just troll the crap out of me on Twitter. I'll be okay with it. I can deal with your hate. It's all right because you're crazy.

So it's fine. But that's the way I look at it. I love our animals, and we will invest a reasonable amount into them based on our income and net worth and even just based on common sense, too. I got to tell you, I could pay $100,000 to have a dog fixed, and there's not a chance I'm going to. Not a chance I'm spending $100,000 on a dog. Not a chance.

And I got that money. I can do that. It wouldn't affect my future at all. Well, you're just mean. You don't have a heart. No, it's a dog i mean it's not i'm not crazy that's what it comes down to so hopefully that helps you um end of soapbox nathan is with us in nebraska hey nathan welcome to dave ramsey show hey dave new to the show uh really big fan though uh out of the videos i've seen thanks um

i just had a quick question here uh my girlfriend and i live together and our lease is up in march 2020 i want to keep renting she wants to start looking for a house and go month to month renting uh what would you recommend never buy a house with somebody you're not married to under any circumstances. You're going to get yourself in a complete pain in the butt because you're of a general partnership in legal terms, and the breaking up thing is hard to do. Both of you on the mortgage, one of you on the mortgage, the other one's stuck, somebody's stuck.

This is a really bad idea. If one of you wants to buy a house and choose to have a roommate, that's up to you. Another way to solve this, of course, is make an honest woman out of her, as we say in the old days, meaning get married. So it's in the wedding fund. We have a wedding fund. We are actually planning on getting married. Oh, good.

Okay. Yeah, we'll get married before you buy the house. Okay. Minus the marriage part. I am still of the mindset that I want to wait a little bit. Why? And she's, well, just because my savings isn't the equivalence of hers. Well, after you're married, there's no mine in yours. It's ours. Yeah, that's true. That's true. I guess I just worry about the unforeseen expenses that could occur comparably. We suggest that you're married a year

and that you have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses plus your down payment and that you're 100% debt-free and then you're ready to buy. So right now I have $12,000 in student loan debt. Oh, you need to get that paid off before we even talk about buying a house. Mm-hmm. Okay. I paid off $11,000 since 2016.

Now, my yearly income gross was only $28,000 in 2016-17. It shot up to $38,000 in 2018. And just in 2019, this month, I got a raise to $45,000. Good. So would you say, realistically, like I've been saving with, you know, even with that $38,000 that I've had the last two years, I usually save a – How much do you have in savings? Right now I have $8,700 in savings. Okay.

What we teach is to have $1,000 in savings and apply everything else to your debt until you're debt-free. But you have to pay for a wedding when? So that's a different fund. I also have money in that as well. There's $5,600 in the wedding fund. Oh, okay. Okay.

Cool. Good. And then I do have a retirement fund, and that's something I did watch a few of your videos. With the retirement fund, should I be not putting in the full? I wouldn't put anything in the retirement fund. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to give you an early wedding gift. I'm going to send you a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover, and it'll walk you through the baby steps in detail

of exactly what to do when, because that's going to help you get every bit of this done. So you're on the right track. You're sniffing around the edges of the right answer, and I'll give you the details. I'll send you the book for free. Hey, man, thank you for being a listener. That puts us out of the day for Ramsey Show and the books. We'll be'll send you the book for free. Amen. Thank you for being a listener. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books.

We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for the Dave Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit DaveRamsey.com slash show and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.