The Ramsey Show - App - Make Money Choices Today That You Won’t Regret Tomorrow

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

This is the Ramsey Show, where you come America to get coaching, to win in your life, win in your money, win in your profession, and win in your relationships. 888-825-5225 is the phone number to jump in alongside the incomparable, the fabulous, and almost happy birthday gal. Tomorrow, she will be the birthday gal, Jade Warshaw. I'm Ken Coleman, just happy to sit next to her. That's how it goes, folks. That's it. I'm Ken Coleman. Just happy to sit next to her. That's how it goes, folks. Just that's it. I'm easy.

I love it. Easy like Sunday morning. I enjoy being with you, friend. We always have a good time. So, Jade will coach you up on what to do with your money. I'm going to coach you up on how to make more money. How about that? Pretty simple. Let's go.

To the ATL, Atlanta, Georgia. Christy's there. Christy, how can we help? Yes. I got a divorce a few years Georgia. Christy's there. Christy, how can we help? Yes. I got a divorce a few years ago, not really by choice, but I cannot seem to find a job. Before, I stayed at home with my kids. I had a great job.

I have a master's degree. And now that I'm trying to look for a job full-time, nobody will really hire me. And I'm currently doing like the small business that I was doing when I was married. So it's more of a part-time income. Um, but I got, my house has paid off. My car is paid off. I have a rental house that's paid off. So I've got that and I've got some cash, but I'm not really sure what to do with it because I don't know what my salary is going to be in the future. Okay. Well, let's get, we'll get to the cash. I want Jade to weigh in on that and help you out, but let's just talk about

this reality that you're facing. You're saying, I can't get hired. Are you not getting interviews or are you getting interviews and you're not winning the interview? What's going on? Well, I started with looking in the healthcare business section that I was in, and because it had been over 20 years, I just could not get any kind of interviews. I've had all kinds of people look at my resume and say it's really good. I mean, vice presidents, all types of people I've had look at it. Um, so then I tried to, you know, change it up and do more marketing stuff, which is kind of what I've been doing, I guess, part-time. Um, and I just can't seem to find anything. Well, no, again, here, I'm looking for specifics. When you say

you can't get interviews and that's across the board. I have had a few interviews. Okay. can't get interviews and that's across the board? I have had a few interviews, but not very many. Like I'm just not getting any calls for interviews. So I'm not sure. What's your process? What is your process for getting these interviews? What are you doing? I'm going online and filling out. I have different resumes tailored to different types of jobs and then I'm sending them in. And I've been looking locally, but also I can't really move right now. I still have one in high school. So I'm kind of a

little bit, I don't live in the area. Okay, so based on what you did in the past in the healthcare industry, what did you do, by the way? Oh, I was in finance. Okay, so on the number side. Okay, so based on that, that skill set is still there. You largely, it's not like you forgot how to crunch numbers and be detailed and all the things and be analytical, all the things that it takes to win. So you've had a few interviews, but based on all of that, that's what people are telling you in the healthcare space, that your resume is up to speed and ready to go? Yeah, I mean, I have had a few people in healthcare, but mostly it's just been other fields. Anyone that I knew that could look at it, I would let them look at it. But everybody said they thought it was a great resume.

All right, two things. One, I want to make sure, Christian, let's get her my Ken Coleman resume templates. They're very, very different, and they're designed to actually call attention to what I teach hearing, it's pretty low. So how do we increase the percentage of actual interviews? The way we do that is through relationships. It's not going online. And I'm not criticizing you. I'm encouraging you. You are essentially playing the job lottery when you go through what is now heavy AI format when you go onto a website. To give you an idea, there are tens and tens and tens of thousands of people that apply

at Ramsey Solutions every year. They're coming through our website, but I'm going to tell you how you get hired here is how you get hired everywhere else. I know Ken. You make a connection. That's right. And so I'm going to give you my book, The Proximity Principle, to encourage you, okay? But more importantly than reading the book, what's really important

is that you begin to say, okay, as I'm moving forward today, as I'm talking to Ken and Jade today, going forward, when I see a job that I'm interested in, I'm not going to fill out the online resume submission thing. What I'm going to do is I'm going to look at that job at company XYZ, and I'm going to go, okay, do I know anybody that works at company XYZ? If the answer is yes, we reach out to them and say, hey, do you know somebody over in this department? Because this is where I'm looking. Okay, and we walk through that. And the goal here is to get them to personally walk into Jade's office and go, Jade, I know you're hiring for this position.

I want to tell you about my friend, Christy. I've known Christy for this long. This is her story, her background. I've got a physical copy of her resume in this nice little manila file folder, if anybody uses those anymore. Or they put the resume in front of Jade and say, Jade, I'm not going to bug you. I'm not going to rash you. I'm not going to bend your arm. But I think you should seriously consider my friend, Christy. Now, it's not a guarantee that Jade, who's helping me role play in this situation, is going to go, done, she's hired. Thank you, Ken.

I've been waiting for you to walk in and tell me who I should hire. That's not going to happen. But Christy, you get how that does move you out of the pile, yes? Yes. The digital pile. Okay. Now, if you don't know anybody at Company XYZ, you got to ask, do I know somebody who knows somebody? And now we're playing this old game of seven degrees from Kevin Bacon. But I'm telling you, as old-fashioned and as simple as that sounds, that is the way to get noticed. And it's going to take some time,

and you're going to have to keep turning over rocks, turning over rocks, turning over rocks. And eventually you're going to get into the right situation where the door opens for you. Now, I want to transition to Jade here because she's got some money she doesn't know what to do with. And I wanted you to help her out with that while she's in this season of part-time pay. All right. Well, let's talk about the money because when you, what you first said sounded pretty good. Paid off house, paid off car, paid off rental. What else is going on? I mean, I have some extra money. Like when we sold the marital house, I wanted to do something with it. So I bought a rental. I have a great tenant, pays on time, like it's going great.

The problem is I don't have enough to buy another full house so I'd have to get of course mortgage and the rates you know are not good and I don't want if I do that I don't want it to be too close to what I'd have to pay you know with insurance and taxes and such the other houses for you I'm just for you another rental my house is paid off why are you in a rush to where you're like I'd have to get a mortgage and I'd have to why do you feel rushed to do that um because I won't be getting any help from my ex-husband soon like I'm you know I'm kind of getting near there and I don't make a lot with my job or my so you're thinking this is going to be good income like instant

income yes I'm looking for income really okay well it's not going to be good income? Like instant income. Yes. I'm looking for income, really. Okay. Well, it's not going to be too, too much because you're going to have a mortgage on the house. I would not do that. I would not go into debt to pick up another rental property. I think you could probably go make more doing something else with less risk or no risk attached to it just in the form of a job. If I were you, the money that you have left, I would probably sit it in a high-yield savings account and continue to save for it.

If the horizon is more than five years, I suppose you could throw it in an index fund and let it grow a little bit faster. But other than that, nothing's on fire here. Yeah, I agree. I mean, Ken gave you the... You just got to be patient. Ken gave you what you need to get the job you need.

And I would, by the way, be getting solid hourly work if that's what you got to do to make up the difference here. But hang on the line. Christian, let's get her a copy of The Proximity Principle. Let me tell you something. The right people will get you in the right place. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. Alongside Jade Warshaw, I'm Ken Coleman.

We're so excited that you're with us. Well, it's that time of year. I can't believe how fast the calendar is coming at me. And before you know it, you're going to have to pay those taxes. And you need to make sure that you've got a pro who knows how to navigate maybe some of the complexities or just making sure that you are not paying too much. All of those things that are associated with taxes, you just don't want to try to do it yourself unless you really know what you're doing. That's why we want you to think about a tax pro. Go to ramseysolutions.com slash tax pro to find CPAs and enrolled agents who have been vetted by

our Ramsey team. And I was just emailing back and forth with my local tax pro, and I always tell him, I gave you some love today on the show because i sleep better because i know he's taking care of business i know that's right you know what i mean i do not want to get on the wrong side of the irs i know that's right take care of that business ramsey i don't want to do it i hate taxes ken so do i i'm not going to get distracted sometimes i hear the word taxes and i go into a rant. We're going to go to Kevin. Okay. Kevin is in Charlotte, North Carolina. Kevin, how can we help today? Hi guys. Um, thanks for taking my call. Um, this, this fall, uh, my wife and I will be coming into a significant amount of money. Um, it'll be like probably a million after taxes. Wow. What's going on? And so I want to be smart about it. My wife and I kind of disagree about this. So she wants to move. There's an area of our city that she really wants to move

into. It's incredibly expensive. I know what you're talking about. If you're in Charlotte, I know. Yeah. So our neighborhood doesn't have very many kids, and our oldest has no one his age. So that's a big portion of why we want to move. How old is he? We owe about $182,000 on our house. Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, you're going so fast. We've got a couple questions for you. I'm sorry.

No, no, you're doing great. How old is your child? My oldest is 11. Okay, so you've got 11 years old. And then what is creating this windfall? What's the one million coming from? My wife, she's a rock star. And so she's moving a book of business to a different institution.

Okay, correct. And that's one of her incentives. Okay. Okay, So this is considered income. This is not an inheritance. That's why I asked that. Correct. Wow. That's a big deal. So tell me more about the numbers. You want to move. You gave me the reasons why. I don't know how good those reasons are, but I digress. Tell me the numbers so we can see this makes sense. Okay. So we owe about 182 on our house. We bought it for 265. What's it worth? It's now probably worth about 700 on the low end, I would say. It does need a renovation. We bought it when we had nothing. It was kind of an

up-and-coming neighborhood and it has just exploded. So our mortgage right now is about $1,700. I could rent it as is probably for about $2,700. I wouldn't do that. Keep rolling. Okay. And basically that's kind of what I want to know is I kind of want to keep the house because I think it would be a great rental. I also just love the house.

I love the neighborhood. If it was paid off, I wouldn't necessarily disagree with that if you were also paying for your next house in cash. Yeah. So the next house, the houses in this neighborhood go for like $1.5. Okay. So we could rent it. We could sell it. If we rent it, we would need to do some renovations like kitchen, bathroom in our current house. Well, I don't think you can have your cake.

Should we take the million and put it all towards the other home? Should we take a hundred or two and put it towards renovations for this property and put 800 on the other home? Yeah, I don't think you can have your cake and eat it too on this. I think that there's a really clear path forward, which would be if you've got, you're going to have 1 million. The house you own is worth about 500, a little less once like fees and everything are accounted for.

And the house you want is 1.5. That's the money right there. So without looking at the other factors, because I have to ask you more questions, but let's just say, hey, I want a house that's 1.5 million. Selling your current house gets you the 1.5 million to pay cash for it. I wouldn't do a situation

where I do a little bit on this house, rent it while it still has a mortgage, and then put a little on the next house and have a mortgage there. I feel like there's a way for you to do this really clean and come out on top. The only other way would be to take the 182 and pay that off and then buy a less expensive second house.

And then you could do the two things at one time. Does that make sense? Yeah. From a math perspective, it makes sense. Yeah. But let me tell you why I don't think it makes sense and why I agree with Jay. Wait a minute. What's the other perspective other than math? We're talking about money. That's right. I know. I know. Well, his wife, he wants to stay. So Kevin wants to stay where he is. The wife wants the nice upgrade of the neighborhood. That's true. Listen. That's true. That's true. I know. So let me throw this out, okay, as to why I like Jade's idea,

and I want to give you real numbers, Kevin, okay? But before you do, we have to ask a couple of key questions to even see, does my idea work? Because we don't know. Do you guys have debt? Do you have – tell us about your debt. Tell us about your income. Tell us more.

Okay. So I do have a car. So we have about $20,000 left on a car. I'll pay that tomorrow. I'll pay it off tomorrow. Okay. So that's done. After I pay the $20,000 left on my car, our emergency fund will be down to about $27,000. Okay.

It should be about $115,000. For six months? For six months, yeah. Dang. Okay. Yeah, they're crushing it. Love it. What's the income? Our income is currently about $350,000. Let's go. Okay, good. So here's the deal, all right? I've heard everything I need to hear, Jade. Yeah, me too. Kevin, you don't need to be a landlord. And I just don't think it makes any sense. Here's why, okay? You only are talking about right now,

if you owe $1,700 a month, you're paying for it on mortgage. You said it was about $2,700 that you would get in rent. That's $1,000 a month. That is a whopping... On the low end. Kevin, don't fight me on this one. Don't fight me on this one. That's a whopping $12,000 a month. That is a whopping... On the low end. Kevin, don't fight me on this one. Don't fight me on this one. That's a whopping $12,000 a year. Let's up it a little bit. You're going to make $15,000 a year gross on renting this house. Yes or no? Gross. Okay, sure. All right, yeah. Now,

you're talking about putting money in it to renovate it just to rent it. It's just burning cash. I would sell it, pay off the debt that you have left, and take, like Jade said, take the rest of it and put it to the down payment with the million dollars and buy a sweet house and a sweet neighborhood cash because you're not making much money. Even if you pay it off, Jade gave you a second scenario. You pay off the 182, now you're in it. You're still only clearing about 25 to 30 grand a year, and I'm being generous because that's gross. That's not including reno costs, maintenance. Dude, it is not all it's cracked up to be.

Okay, we talked earlier about money and the math part of it, and you are right. There is more to money than math it might not weigh as heavily but is this like the house that you had your children in is this the how like this clearly has some sentimental value it feels like it's more about that than the real estate side there's certainly sentimental value i mean if i'm paying 1700 right if i'm paying 1700 a month for for house, you know, and just also looking at trends of, you know, kids moving back in with their parents and everything, like I could probably in 10 or 15 years, I could probably, you know, afford for my son to live here temporarily, you know, to get his life set up whenever he graduates from college or my other two kids, you know to get his life set up uh whenever he graduates from college or or my or my other two kids you know and it could just be sort of the house that we have that lets the kids roll through

uh i also think it's a great investment like this this area that we're in now is just exploding um and it's become very popular and so i i feel like if we were to sell right now we would be leaving money on the table because then then wait just going up in value so, so, so much. Why? Then tell me this. Now I'm sensing something else. It's like we've got this million dollars. It's going to be burning a hole in our pocket.

We've got to do something with it. What would it look like to just say, hey, let's sit on this for a minute because in any other scenario, whenever somebody comes into a large amount of money like that, we tell them to wait. Like, chill out for a minute. Get used to the idea.

I'll tell you what it is. His wife wants it. That's the challenge. And I know. I think you're moving too fast. She wants to move into this. I mean, our life is in this other neighborhood. All of our friends are in the other neighborhood.

It don't matter. All of our kids' friends are in the other neighborhood. But you don't feel right about it. If you don't feel right about it, don't do it. He doesn't feel right. This is a therapy session. Yeah. I mean it. Yeah you don't feel right about it, don't do it. He doesn't feel right. This is a therapy session. Yeah. I mean it.

Yeah. They're at an impasse, though. They are both on different ends of the spectrum. And boy, oh boy, I've been married long enough to know how that turns out. This is The Ramsey Show. Rachel, do you ever get these sketchy text messages that are like, Hey, you need to update your address and verify so we can get you the package you didn't order. Yes, I have, George. Sketchy and never trust them. And that's why we recommend Delete.me. They help with that. Yeah, they do. Delete.me actually goes in and

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Absolutely amazing. And Winston and I now get fewer texts, weird emails, spam calls, all of it. I love it. So you got to be sure to check them out. Ramsey fans get 20% off their annual plans. Just go to joindelete.me.com slash Ramsey. That comes out to less than nine bucks a month. Super affordable. It's amazing. So again, that's joindelete.me.com slash Ramsey. Make sure to check it out, you guys. The Ramsey Show continues. I'm Ken Coleman, Jade Warshaw with you as well, 888-825-5225. Let's go to Erin in Augusta, Georgia. Erin, how can we help?

Yes, so my husband and I have been married for about five years this year, and my daughter is 11, and we have a difference of opinion on what we should spend on her we get along great we communicate great but when it comes to this we cannot agree and I would just like some unbiased opinion it's everything from she needs something from school to school uh summer camps I feel like she should be able to go to summer camp and not sit in front of a tablet all summer when he thinks those are a little ridiculous because they are so expensive and that we should not really spend anything extra outside of what our child support is

to spend anything on her. What do you mean? Hold on a second. What do you our child support is to spend anything on her. What do you mean? Hold on a second. What do you mean child support? So I get child support from her dad every month, obviously. Okay, gotcha. But that's the only money that I should use for anything school-related. $300 a month.

And so your husband is going outside of medical and groceries and just keeping this child alive. Anything outside of the basics has to come out of the $300 a month from your ex? Yes, sir. Interesting. What's your combined incomes? $150,000. Okay. How often does this happen?

Like, is this a weekly or monthly, or is this just in some of the bigger things like you described, like summer camp? No, it's everything. Why do you think he's scrutinizing it so much? Because she is a brat. She's 11. She has a little bit of an attitude they don't get along

do they get along no not at all got you got you and her biological dad buys her everything she asks for every single time okay so she's over there yes is she spoiled or does she just get what she needs uh no she's spoiled when it comes to her dad okay so um okay there's a lot going on here i kind of wish dr john was here there's a lot going on here because on the one hand it's like as a parent i don't say to my son, you're acting a type of way right now. And so because of that, I'm not going to make sure you have the things you need for school or I'm not going to put you in summer camp. Like that's not my, that feels retaliatory. And so I don't feel like that's the spirit that we should be making our boundaries out

of. The spirit that we make our boundaries out of is our budget and what makes what's a logical use of money for a child right that's the spirit that we used to do that right um i'm curious how old was she when you guys got married? Six. Was he this way from day one? Yes. Okay. That's what I'm digging into. He is very much, I don't want to spend money on anything. Okay. And so what I was, here's, let me tell you why I asked that question. I'm trying to figure out if this is because she's a brat and he resents her because she's also not his biological daughter. These are all reasonable things that a human being could be struggling with. And I say that,

by the way, Erin, not from judgment, but a sense of understanding. But the fact that you said he was this way day one tells me this is more his scarcity mindset about money. Rachel Cruz wrote a book, Know Yourself, Know Your Money, a few years ago, and it was a genius book, in my opinion. And I think he's got, from his childhood, so I would say there's two E's. It's our experience and our environment. So his environment growing up shapes his view of money, and then his experience with money up to this point shapes his view of money. So since he was that way day one, sure, he could have still had some resentment, but it would have been very small just in her

position as not his biological daughter. I think it's more that he's a scarcity mindset guy with money. He's scared to death. It's hoard, hoard. The resource is not a hoarder. But does he do that in other areas is my question is he a tight wad in the other categories or is it just as it relates to your daughter both he is a tight wad but he will spend things if like if i wanted something sure i could have it but he grew up if he wanted something he had to work for it so that's exactly what okay so i think he also resents your ex and how he spends so lavishly on her and so i do too you do too so you know what he's doing he's correcting he's course correcting whether he realizes it or not

right all right so but i at the same time feel like i should be able to buy things for her and not feel any kind of way about it i agree going overboard uh-huh so it's you guys deciding on what's a normal amount and what's considered overboard yeah this is a uh i think this is a therapy session or four because i think you need a here's what i believe i really believe that you two need to get with a marriage therapist and it's a safe place what's great is you guys are not in crisis you told us you guys get along on everything else so this should not be too painful but it might be difficult to get to a middle ground and And I think you need a, I mean, appreciate you calling us. We're not marriage therapists, but I think getting a, a, a objective licensed marriage therapist who can get you two in the room together. And we find middle ground on this.

Cause I hearing what I hear, Jade, I'm in the middle. I think he's probably way too tight, but I think you also need to come his way, not in giving into his demands, but understanding maybe where he's coming from. I think this is solved with a lot of understanding. And the daughter needs to understand it because she feels it and probably doesn't know what that is, right? Well, that's a difficult one. She feels going over to dad's house and it's like, I get what I want. Then she feels going over to your house and it's like, do these people hate me? It's nothing. Right.

Right. I've told him, I don't tell him every time she asks for something because I do say no a lot. But all he hears is when I'm in agreeance and she's like, all she does is ask for stuff. And I'm like, well, she's 11. Yeah. Yeah. for stuff and i'm like well she's 11 yeah yeah i mean they're gonna ask and you can say no but i i mean the example you gave about going to summer camp you know it depends on what summer camp it depends on how much i mean there's a lot of well that's ways that can go so jade that's where the budget comes in yeah that's why i said this has to be guided by the budget right it's not just a

free-for-all on any side we don't just stop it because we just feel like we're going to stop it but we also don't spend whatever we want so it's you guys looking at your budget and going okay like what's a reasonable amount to spend here um well and i've asked him that i'm like give me a number and he was like five hundred dollars i'm like that spends one a number. And he was like, $500. I'm like, that spends one camp. So you got three months. I get one camp, and she's going to sit in front of her phone the other day. Well, now that part, let's go to the next extreme. Because just because she doesn't go to camp doesn't mean she has to sit in front. Where I come from, we went outside, and we had to play on our own.

And we played basketball. Don't get me started. We played with a stick and a box. Okay, make it happen. And so that part. I agree. me started. We played with a stick and a box. Okay, make it happen. No. And so that part. I agree. The caveat is we work full time, so she's with her dad all summer.

We let her do whatever she wants. Being on the phone is what it happens. That's what happens. Well, but again, to Jade's point, I think Jade's locked in on something here, Erin. I'm changing my opinion a little bit. I thought the man giving you $500 for a summer, that's plenty of money to spend on her, if that's what I'm hearing. And I think you have to adjust your life and her lifestyle. Like, great, you work. So come up with a better plan than she's just at her dad's all the time getting spoiled. So make a fix to that. But throwing more money at it doesn't solve all these issues. It just doesn't. You could send her to camp all the time. You still got to come back to,

I think, therapy and a budget. And I think this guy is probably a little bit more reasonable than he sounds. I think so. But he needs a good reason why. Yeah. Yes. I think he does, but my reasoning isn't good enough, and I think we argue so bad about it, we just avoid it at this point. Yeah, that's the therapy part of it. I think therapy will change this in such a positive way. I'm hopeful. I really believe this. If you guys submit to this process and go in and go, okay, we're going to allow ourselves to be open to this process

and meet in the middle, I think you guys can solve this. I do too. It's complex given the relationship with the divorce and the dad and all this stuff. That's tough. But you guys can figure it out. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys.

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That's the letter Y-R-E-F-Y dot com slash Ramsey. May not be available in all states. All righty then, today's question comes from Olivia in Mississippi. She says, last week I was approached by a friend who recently became a multi-level marketing representative. She asked me to join her team and said that many money experts recommended their company as a side hustle to get out of debt. Not this money expert. She said that she had been skeptical when she first started, but the checks were clearing and they weren't doing anything illegal. They emphasized that the business is not about recruiting people, but doing so leads to earning more money.

Is this going to cost me more money than I would be making? Or does that depend on me and how wisely I use this business? She's asking us like we're the gurus of this multi-level marketing business. I would just steer clear of it all together. If I were you in your shoes, I mean, can I just, okay, let me confess something.

I have fallen victim to this. Like back in the day, I just- Oh, you did? Yeah. I just graduated. Let me tell you the quick story. I just graduated college. I was working in the mall and a guy came in to my store in a nice suit.

And I thought I was helping him, selling him a suit. And he was like, you know, you're a sharp young lady. He kept calling me a sharp young lady. And then he said, you know, I'm looking for people just like you to work in my business. And I was like, you know, I'm in college.

I'm like, okay, I can make some money. He starts telling me, you can make six figures a year. And I'm like, really? Like I was falling for a hook, line and sinker. Ended up going to lunch with him, with my Sam, who was my fiance at the time. And we still didn't understand

it was multi-level marketing at the time. And he was like, yeah, you know, you know all you have to do. And then, and here's the thing. When he showed up at lunch, he showed up in a really nice Mercedes. And I was like, this guy's making me. He's got all the trappers.

Whatever he's doing. Right. Then he starts talking about energy drinks. And I'm like, energy drinks? And me like whatever he's doing. Then he starts talking about energy drinks. And I'm like, energy drinks? And I realized that's what I'd be selling is energy drinks. Oh, that's the product. Well, it was the one product he decided to highlight. Then he says, man, let me tell you about my boss.

He is killing it. He takes us over to his boss's house that he described his boss as like living in a mansion. Boss is living in like a normal, nice house. And you still got sucked in. I bought the energy drinks. I can't even remember what they're called. I couldn't sell one dad. It was energy drinks, paper towels. He was, his, his shtick was, I mean, everybody needs paper towels. Everybody needs energy. I've heard that before. Toilet paper was the one that I heard. Toilet paper, yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, I didn't sell one deck of... How much money did you have to front?

I think it was like 150 or something like that. It wasn't a whole lot. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, listen, I'm with you. I just think this whole thing just sounds like a house of cards and you just shouldn't invest your time into this. Yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't.

I mean, the truth is, yeah, I guess there are people who are making money doing it. Oh, first of all, there are people who crush it. Make no mistake. Yeah. I mean, I'm not saying there's not. But just the way the tone of the question and everything else, it doesn't sound like it's the right thing for you.

You got to be really focused. And by the way, let's be very clear. All of those models are based on recruiting people. That's right. They are. So I don't like the dishonesty of saying it's not about that. Yeah. All right.

Pass. Hard pass. Yeah. I, by the way, I like to buy my toilet paper from a store. I do too. Not from somebody dropping it off in a bag. You know what I mean? Yeah.

That was always the thing for me. My parents got into that for a while. I was like, we got all this toilet paper at our house and like gum and all the things. Energy drinks. You know what I'm talking about? Yes, I do. It's like, what are we doing here? Oh, gosh.

Oh, that's good. All right, let's get back to the phones. Marie is joining us in South Bend, Indiana. Marie, how can we help? Hello. So I'm wondering how my husband and I should prepare for planning to pay for college for two children under two without overfunding a 529 plan and if we should potentially also look at other investment options to help set them up outside of the 529 plan. Yeah. So you're on baby step five?

We're on like four, five, six. Yes. Okay, great. So you're, you're currently putting away the 15% for your retirement. And then on top of that, how much are you able to kind of put into these 529s every month? Right now, probably just like a couple hundred dollars. The big thing is that my husband actually works at a university who will pay half of whatever their tuition is to go anywhere else. That's awesome. That's great. Okay. Which makes most state schools and even some like smaller private universities like very cheap or completely free. Yeah. How old are your kids? That's what we're trying to figure out. How old are they? The oldest, yeah, the oldest is two. So that's the big thing of like,

things can change. He has no intentions of leaving, but if he does, then we do lose that benefit. That's true. I mean, yeah, this is a long, long way in the future. A lot can change in many, many ways, but it is a cool thing to have right now. If I were you, the amount that you're funding, what is it? Did you say $100 per kid every month? Yeah. with cash because there could still be books. There could be other things to spend that money on. And there are two. So as you get closer, you can decide to pull back. You can decide to ramp up. You can decide.

Do you see what I'm saying? This is not something that you have to lock in and you can't change at any point. You have a lot of freedom here. Right. And we were hoping to start contributing more, but we're just trying to figure out how much do we put into a 529, knowing that room and board would be on the hook for. Have you projected it? Have you projected what that $100 per kid will be when it's time for them to go to school? I have not. I need to. Okay. I would do that. I would do that. I would look at the 529

that you're interested in. I would look at the average rate of return for that and see, okay, if I put a hundred dollars in here, you know, after 16 years, what's it going to be? And then you can decide, okay, let's work backwards. How much do we think room and board will be? And kind of work backwards from there. And that's what I, that's, if I were in your shoes, that's where I would start. Perfect. And if we get to the point where we are potentially going to overfund there, there are other investment opportunities that you would look at doing to help set them up for when they graduate and things like that. So what I would do at that point, once I funded a 529, working through the baby steps, if I had extra money after that, I would put it towards

paying off my house. And then once I paid off my house, then I would start looking at other things that I could do. I know my husband and I, one of our big goals is to have a fund for our kids to help them buy their first house, like that sort of thing. But that comes after Mama and Papa pay off their house. Right, yeah, and ours will be paid off here in a few years. That's what I'm trying to think. Yeah, after that, then I'd just probably start with a brokerage account, something that you can dip into. It's not part of your retirement,

and you can gift them a certain amount each year under the gift tax. You and your husband are both entitled. What is it? 14? I can't remember off the top of my head. I can't remember the exact amount. You'll have to check it and it might be different by then,

but that's what I would do. And that way you can kind of see, okay, here's the amount that I can gift them every year or here's the amount that I can gift them as a lump sum. And again, you guys can kind of project out and see, okay, what do we think that we want to be able to give them? How long would it take us to save it at the rate that we're able to save? Perfect. Yeah. Makes sense. All right. Thanks for the call, Marie. Good thought. Love it. Love when parents are thinking about that. And by the way,

I think that advice is great to kind of go, okay, looking at tuition now, there's really no way to know what tuition is going to look like. Just the way that the higher ed industry is kind of evolving right now. That's right. So it's kind of like you've got to do your best with those projections. You've got to go, okay, based on where we are right now, adjust for inflation, and then you kind of back into your number. And his was based on a work benefit that who knows in 16 years where they'll be. That's interesting. All right, let's go to San Antonio. Actually oh wait actually no we're not look at that the little ding that was it off that's

right we are running out of time in this segment so uh we will take a quick commercial break don't move the phone lines are lightened up triple eight eight two five five two two five is the number alongside jay warshaw i'm ken Coleman. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. Welcome to The Ramsey Show, America, where we're here to coach you up so you're winning in your money, winning in your profession, and winning with your relationships. Alongside Jay Warshaw, I'm Ken Coleman. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. We're going to start it with Nicole, who's joining

us in Toronto. Nicole, how can we help? Hi, I've been with my boyfriend for some time now. And basically for the last year, we've been kind of planning to buy a house together. So I've been going through the steps and saving money. And recently, he's been kind of hinting at the fact that he's going to propose soon. So I kind of sat down with him to see over the last year how much he saved towards this house. So we kind of know where we're falling. And I discovered after a year that he basically hasn't saved any money. And during that period of the year, I have been taking on most of the financial burdens because I make significantly more money than he does. I'm kind of shocked by the fact that he hasn't saved any money,

and I don't really know how to go forward. So I wanted your advice. Yeah, good question. On the one hand, I get why you're concerned because in you guys' relationship, it sounds like there was kind of an agreed on point that you wanted to reach and you were going to try to reach it together. And it seems like he hasn't held up his side of the deal. But from my perspective, I would say he doesn't have to contribute to this at all because it's really not a great idea for you guys to buy a house together if you're not married. And it's really not a great idea for you guys to be combining your money in any sort of way if you're not married. It's really great for you guys to say, okay, say you do live together. I'm paying my portion, you pay your portion, but we're not doing this thing together until there's some legality protection surrounding it in marriage.

I agree with that. But Nicole, how did you feel? I've got a point to make after I ask her this question. How did you feel when you found out? Well, that's actually the plan. Sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you. No, go ahead. But the plan is not to buy the house until we get married. That's why he's telling me that the engagement is coming soon. So we're getting the ducks in the row for, okay, we're engaged now.

That means after we do the wedding, we're going to be buying the house, but the house is going to be the biggest fee, right? I see. I see. I see. Okay. So, okay. So how did you feel?

What, what emotions and thoughts did you have when you found out that he hadn't been saving any money? I was absolutely devastated because he's living at home with his, we don't live together now. He's living at home with his, we don't live together now, he's living at home with his family. Ah. And I've been printing the money on everything, all of our dates. I've been putting away tons of money and I make three times the amount of money he does. How long have you been dating?

Just over a year. I think this is a very clear, I'm going to call it yellow light. Oh, I would have said red flag. Well, you always surprise me. I feel, I think it's a yellow light. I think in the sense of this, what I mean by yellow light is. Proceed with caution. No, it's we sit down. She doesn't dump him. Red light to me is dumping, leaves him. I'm out. Yellow light is sit down and go, we need to do some premarital. I mean, if we're talking this, we need to get in alignment

on this because this is what I was devastated. And you may have already shared that with him, but even if you have, there needs to be a true alignment conversation yeah and is he going to show you in the days and weeks and months ahead that he understands your values and is in alignment with your values and he begins to save some money i would not even say yes to his proposal i wouldn't move forward on anything until that that's what i mean by yellow light i agree with that i think i think ken and i are saying the same thing we just used different colors because red for me means like let's stop and see if anything dangerous else dangerous is happening yeah and so my question for him would be like okay you've not been saving can you tell me why

why and then can you tell me like well what have you been using your money for instead because you're still living at home i would have real questions and I would want real answers because that's indicative of what it will be like in your marriage when you speak about money. Well, I know the answer to that. I did ask that question. And the majority of his money has been spent on food and video games. Again, massive, massive, like, like construction sign going, watch out, watch out, cliff ahead. You know, Nicole, are you feeling that too? Yeah, that's what I'm calling because it's.

Okay. Yeah, we're confirming it. If I could play older brother or I might be old enough to be your dad for all I know, I would just tell you that this is a serious, serious conversation. He needs to make some changes in his life if he wants to be in your life. That would be my bumper sticker. What do you see about him that's really, I want to go in another direction. What do you see about him that is really great? That you go, this guy, this guy's got motivation. This guy's got that thing. This guy, like like tell me those things I'm just

curious uh why I love him um he has been my rock like I've opened up a ton of new businesses in the last year and every single one I've done he's had my back through every single one he's so genuine he is so sweet and he is so kind hearted. I've never met a man like him in my life. Okay. I like that. Listen, I'm going to,

I'm going to say something really harsh. And I realized this. You can get all of those things from a pet. Support somebody to be there to talk about. I want you to be able to say deeper things. Does that make sense? Oh, it makes sense. I love

this. I love you're bringing the heat. What you said, like that's a golden retriever and we love that. That's why we love our animals. They're, they're always there for us unconditionally. You know, they're, they're there to support us. They've got that, that, um, by the way, he's doing by playing video games and buying fast food. He is essentially the same as a golden retriever there as well. Just costing you money. Costing you money. And I want to hear you say, you know, this guy, you know, if you were to ask me or my husband that same question, it would be more about what they bring out of us and what I see, what I go, when I go, oh man, nobody works harder than Sam Warshaw.

Like that's inspiring to me. The way he will get up and and do whatever it takes to take care of his family the way that he'll take care of his kids like the way he's sacrificed for us year after like those are the things that I want to hear and I'm not hearing that that's why I kind of flipped it to see okay how is what do you guys mean to each other and what roles are you playing and is it beyond just well you know they're they're there when i need them you know and what does that even mean he's very sweet guy a nice guy all the things he's also a pretty decent gamer sounds like you know but we gotta you see where i'm going nicole i gotta

i gotta chuckle out of you i mean listen you can love someone and decide to also say they're not the person that they need to be right now for me to decide to marry them yes i think this is a very real conversation back in my day we used dtr to find the relationship kids don't know what that means i'm sure dtr i'm sure i dated myself again on that but i think that's what's got to happen. Yeah, I think so too. All right, so you're the strong female. I think she's a strong female. Give her 30 seconds on how she starts that conversation with our guy. Oh boy, how she starts the conversation. Or sets it up. I've been thinking. Okay, give me more. I've been thinking, you know, I love you because you've always been there for me. You've been my rock,

but I really needed you to be there for me. I really needed you to show up when it came time to talk about our goals as a couple. And when it came to our goals as a couple, you let me down. You didn't show up with your side of the money. You said you were going to do this. You said you were going to do that.

And I haven't seen that. And this is the first time you've let me down. And unfortunately, it's in an area that really matters to me because it's not just about you or me. It's about us. Wow. All right. Oh, it's good. It's good. All right. I think it's going to get his attention. Well done. Poor guy. But he's going to have to stand up at some point. He is. We'll be right back. This is The Ramsey Show. What does the future hold for business? Ask nine experts and you'll get ten different answers. Economic growth or a recession.

Business taxes will go up or down. AI will help us work or it will replace us all. But there's no such thing as a crystal ball. That's why more than 40,000 businesses have future-proofed themselves with NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud enterprise resource planning system. Ramsey Solutions uses NetSuite and you should too. Whether your company's earning millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges and seize your biggest opportunities. With one unified business management suite, there's only one source of truth for the visibility and control you need to make quick decisions. NetSuite's real-time insights and forecasting help you see into the future with

actionable data. And when you're closing the books in days, not weeks, you can spend less time looking backward and more time focusing on what's next. And speaking of what's next, download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine Learning at netsuite.com slash ramsey. It's free at netsuite.com slash Ramsey. It's free at netsuite.com slash Ramsey. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show alongside Jade Warshaw. I'm Ken Coleman. Glad to have you with us. 888-825-5225 is the phone number.

Hey, folks, as the Ramsey work guy here, helping you win at work so you can make more money, really excited to tell you I've been dreaming up a concept for a long time. Jade, you know this. It's called Front Row Seat, where we're having deep dive conversations with movers and shakers, thought leaders, people that are successful from every walk of life, designed to do three things.

To get better as a person so that I take a better version of me to work. So I can move up the ladder professionally and then as I move up the ladder, I'm going to be put in a leadership position. How do I lead? And so helping you grow in your professional development is called Front Row Seat. And it is now out on YouTube, wherever you get podcasts. So check it out, Front Row Seat. It's a lot of fun. Here's what's unique about it. We have a live audience and the audience sits with me and the guest and they get a chance to ask questions as well. So it's not just me asking questions. I wanted the audience to be able to learn as I'm learning, engage with me, with our guest,

and they also represent the larger audience. So download Front Row Seat, or not download, subscribe, wherever you get your podcasts, and on YouTube, just search Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman. Yay. All right, let's go to Orlando, Florida, where Mo joins us. What's up, Mo? Hey, how are you guys doing today? Good. How are you?

I'm well. So I've just been doing research with my financials, and then I came across George Camel on YouTube, and then that's how I saw the Randy show. Yeah, you've got to love George. Aw, yeah. Yes, sir. He's very amusing on YouTube, so if you guys ever see him,

please give him a thank you for how humorous he is. Believe me, I'm going to tell him on the next break because he loves hearing it. How can we help? My question is, so with the baby steps, I feel like I'm in limbo between baby step two and baby step three. I have $6,000 right now in my HYSA. So I feel step one is definitely complete.

So my financial situation, my wife and I, we closed on a home in June of 2023 out in California. Our mortgage is, sorry, expense wise, we're stocking away $5 5200 a month into another hysa to cover the mortgage property taxes and insurance okay so you move let me just make sure i understand you moved from california you hadn't sold the house so right now you're still paying for the house no i'm i'm gonna i'm moving out to california you moving out to California? Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. I think I understand.

So that's the mortgage there. And then I have nontraditional student loans. My parents had a 529 plan for me and my siblings, and they want half of the money back of what they totally spent from my college university and then okay hold on let me clarify let me clarify make sure i understand that are you telling me your parents created a 529 you use the money for education and they're like hey pay us back some of what you used from the 529 correct that. Okay. How much do they want? They only want 50% back of what my costs were. Which is what? Which is $75,000 now. That's wild. I've never heard of a parent investing in a

529 and then saying, hey kiddo, pay me half of it back. Did you know that on the front side? Or is this new information? No, this was when I was a teenager in high school. So you knew? Yes. Okay. Okay. That's okay.

Whatever you guys decided, that's the deal. All right. That's different. What else? So you owe your parents $75,000. You've got $6,000 in the HYSA. Why did you say earlier that since you had $6,000 in the HYSA, you had moved from Baby Step 2 to Baby Step 3? No, no, no. I moved from Baby Step 1. And now I feel like I'm in limbo between Baby Step 2 and Baby Step 3. Okay, got it. Well,

technically, well, let me clear that up. You are in Baby Step 2 because Baby Step 2 is we pay off all of our consumer debt, anything except our home, if we have a mortgage at that up. You are in baby step two, because baby step two is we pay off all of our consumer debt, anything except our home, if we have a mortgage at that point. So you are in baby step two. And part of that is taking your savings down to $1,000 and putting the rest at the debt. So in this case, yeah, you'd be dropping that HYSA down to $1,000 and throwing the rest at the debt. Um, is there any other debt aside from the student loans?

Uh, the, yeah, for the, so we, when my wife and I closed on our home, we don't have PMI. So the other 10% came from a loan from her parents. Okay. And how much was that loan? That now I believe is, I think it's $50,000. Ooh, sir. Okay, man.

Let me tell you something. I'm going to be flat out. I'm going to be straight up with you. Owing money to like debt and creditors sucks, but it kind of feels worse when you owe it to family members because they have a different emotion. It's a different emotion. I, I want you to get out of debt so quickly. Okay. So you're moving to California. You've got the house. What are you going to be making? My gross salary last year was $137,000 and I'm predicting it'll go up. It's not a predictable set. It's predictable in that the salary will increase, but it's not a predictable number per year. What about your wife? She's predictable at around, I think her gross last year was 80 000 okay so you guys are

going to be a little bit over 200 like maybe 210 that sounds about correct with our gross income for last year okay and so i just want to i just want to make sure because your mortgage is $5,200 a month. What's your month? The mortgage is $4,252 a month. And then we also sock away extra money. Property taxes are now increasing. It's about $8,400 a year now. And then California does its 2% increase from Prop 13. Yeah. And then we also stock away extra money for the insurance. I have a question. And the insurance last year was.

I have a question in all of this, because I'm trying to track with you on the math as much as I can, but I don't know these direct numbers. What percentage of your take-home is your mortgage going to be? Because California is expensive tax-wise and what the number you gave me, the 4,000, that's not including taxes and insurance. So what percentage is it? Have you done that math? Yeah, I think it's about 50 to 60%. My guy. I know it's supposed to be 25%. Yeah, and you're not even a little bit over. We got to go back to the drawing board. And I want that for you.

Like, I don't want you to be in this situation because you're about to be stressed to the teeth. Yeah, I was going to ask, do you feel stress, Mo, when you start thinking through this? I have, but now I've accepted the terms of it and I feel relaxed because of the nature of my job. I feel content that my wife is 20 minutes away from her parents. In the nature of my job, I'm gone for two weeks at a time. Emotionally, I feel okay because I know she has somebody of my job. I'm gone for two weeks at a time. So emotionally, I feel okay because I know she has somebody to rely on while I'm gone.

But you don't have any negative emotion about the lack of margin because of how much you're paying in mortgage? I used to, I've come to terms with it and accepted it. I mean, I'm just like percentage wise. I just want to lay this out because I think you understand it conceptually, like on a very like not detailed level, but like actual numbers putting it in your budget. Because I'm looking at it like this. I'm like, okay, 15% in a little while, 15%. Well, not for you. It's going to be a while.

But at some point, 15% is going to go to investing. 10% is going to go to giving. You're at 60% on your mortgage. That leaves you 15% to live on. That's not much. And at this point, that would be for paying off debt, which is going to take forever at that rate. So I strongly urge you to consider nothing's done that can't be undone, right? Like you don't have to stay in this situation. It might be, and I think that it is you not keeping this house. It's too much house for you. You got to get out of this house. That's what I would do. And then I'd work on paying off the debt that you owe to your family. Yeah, I agree. Thanks for the call, Mo. Please reconsider. Don't move. We'll be right back. This is The Ramsey Show.

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there's no better way to take care of health care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget at chministries.org slash budget. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. Alongside Jade Warshaw. I'm Ken Coleman. The phone number to jump in is 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Ray is joining us now in Dallas. Ray, how can we help today? Good afternoon. Thank you so much for taking my call.

Sure. I have a bit of a unique situation, a little different than others. I'm in my late 70s. I'm quasi-retired, and I've amassed an estate a little north of $30 million. Way to go, Ray. Come on now. We have no debt. We have no mortgages. We have no credit card debt. Everything is paid. And we have approximately 17 million in cash and equities and the balance in property. My question is that we've set up a very, I think, qualified estate plan with competent estate

lawyers. And the beneficiaries of my estate are approximately a third, a third, a third, my daughter and my grandchildren and my wife. The monies that are spinning off of our investments are more than my grandkids could legitimately or reasonably spend when they become of age. I want to right now, the estate plan calls for up to $250,000 per annum for my grandchildren. By the way, my grandchildren are six and nine. Okay. So they're going to build a lot of wealth over the next several years. When they're 21, they get a modest amount of money for five years,

and then at 25, they begin to kick in. My question is a simple one. Is $250,000 a year too much or too little, given the fact that the growth of the estate will be much larger than that? That is a good question. I don't know that I can tell you if it's too much or too little. I think that... Yeah, I would return that with a question. Do you think it's too much or too little. I think that... Yeah, I would return that with a question. Do you think it's too much, or do you think it's too little, or do you think it's just right, and why? Yeah, that's good. We'll throw it back at you. Well, at this stage, you know, in our

economy, in our country, I think it's just right, but I'm concerned that the growth of the investment portfolio, it'll be selfish not to let them grab more of it. And the whole reason for having an estate is to take care of the little ones in the future when you don't know what's going to happen. That's right. However, you decided that $250,000 at this point in time does feel right and it's per year correct yes starting at 21 uh no at 21 i think it was a little bit too much so we're going to do the month between 21 and 25 and then uh 250 and then a map 25. Yeah, I think it depends on, you know, I'm trying to channel Dave right now. I think gifts are really great. And I think how people use gifts depends

on who they are as people. Because when one person's hand 250,000 a year is like, hey, this was my grandfather's legacy. I'm going to do great things with it. It's not going to stop me from reaching my personal potential. It's not something that I'm going to use as a crutch in life. Whereas another personality, it could become really a stumbling block for them. So I wonder more about the type of language that's built in as far as what type of person does this grandchild have to be in order to get this money and is their language built in that says if if if if it's harming them what takes place those are the things that i'm thinking about and i know it's you know it's not like you

can reach out from the beyond and control everything but those are the things that i'm thinking about the other part of this and and again, this is your estate. I am not trying to overstep. I see what you're saying. You're like, there's a lot of money that's gonna be generated here. I don't wanna not let them have it. But I also wonder, okay, well, there's other things

that you can give to that's not just kids and grandkids because it's in many ways like that you've got so much money you can only give them so much without really giving them a ton of money right how long would the the 250 be paid out is it in perpetuity uh yes i mean we don't have a stop on it and then they're uh one would assume that they were uh by the way, just to comment on your last statement, we have clauses in our state plan that they have to be good people, good character, you know, drug and disease free and all of those. Yes, okay. And we have a very competent trustee and, you know, with a wonderful moral compass.

And, you know, we're comfortable about that. But I'll be gone. So let me ask you this then, Ray. So they get the $250 each year. By the way, these are the grandkids we're talking about? Once they get to 25. Okay. So at what point would they get the rest of their inheritance?

Is there like a kick in at like a retirement age where they get it all? Because you were saying they're going to be building tremendous wealth, and it's like the 250 is a nice dividend, for lack of a better way of describing it. Is that right? That is essentially correct. So when would they get the big chunk? There is no clauses in the estate plan in which they get to clean out the drawer. So I would assume that that legacy would continue on with their wills and estates to where they

could leave it to the great-grandchildren, whom I will never know. Okay, so it's $250 each year, and it's not like they get it all at one lump sum that's all they get and that's very generous by the way and then it transfers to their children's children yeah i hope so and right but i we could well afford uh just with the increases in the portfolio of the investment side of it to give them more i'm concerned to do that for all the reasons that you already know. You know what I'm thinking, Ray? I'll get out of your way, Jay, but I was just thinking, I really trust your gut. I think you are a man of wisdom, and you have proven it with how you've lived your life and as to where you stand today. So I'm not going to second guess your plan. However, if I personalize it, and if I was doing this for my grandkids, which I don't have,

but if I'm sitting there thinking this, I'm wondering if even the most mature of 25-year-olds, it's not that they can't handle it, but how would it change their perspective if they knew they were going to be making a quarter million dollars every year, whether they do anything at all. And I almost would want to maybe put it to them in different ways. So for instance, they get a really big lump sum to buy a house, but it can only be used to buy a house cash. So you can put that in the trust, right? So that's one thing I'd think about. I'd be thinking about it can only go to an investment. It's going to be put in an investment thing, at which point you can only pull out at retirement. That could be another way of doing it, Ray, but I'm not second guessing your

plan. Jade? Yeah, I agree with Ken. The other question I had for you, Ray, was you said, okay, obviously this 250 is paying out to the kids grandkids but that's by no means going to drain basically your estate nest egg and then you said i hope it would go but they never get the lump sum so what happens to it based on the estate what happens to it do you know i'm saying like what what's the transition point well the uh the transition point is that following our conversation, you know, with you guys, you know, we'll certainly go back to council and we'll amend these things to make sure that we, you know, make that of monies available either in the gift side of it or increase in the 250 or include the unnamed biological grandchildren in the state.

Our major concern was giving them too much too soon. Yeah, I agree. And our major concern was requiring them to be good citizens and, you know, no criminal record and all those things that you can think of, you know. So that's kind of what we're leaning on. With insurance and property taxes, we want them to

have cars that work and a good vacation and an Ivy Lake school if they choose to do that. There's plenty of money there to do that. Well done. I wish we had more time. I want to know how he came up with this $30 million. Maybe another call.

I mean, Ray's my hero. I would love to be Ray one day to be able to bless my kids and my grandkids that way. That's really awesome. What a blessing. What a legacy. Well done. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The ramsey show alongside jade borshaw i'm ken coleman so glad you are with us 888-825-5225 is the phone number let's go to davante in san antonio davante how can we help

hey how are y'all good to talk to y'all. Good. How are you? Good, good. So I'll get right into it. Me and my wife, we started a Christian-based afterschool program last year. And long story short, we felt led to do it, but it did not end well. We took some risks. I mean, they started with personal finances and then credit cards, and then we did a HELOC loan, 50 grand. Fast forward to right now um got all the credit card debt paid off uh we went down two cars but the lord bless us we're back to both cars being paid off but I got this 50,000 HELOC loan I want to know what y'all would

do if they all were me um I got a two-year-old a baby on the way I'm trying to be like Ray come on come on me too uh no it trying to be like Ray. Come on. Come on. Me too. No, it says to leave an inheritance to your children's children, spiritually and financially, right? That's right. That's right. I'm ready to, I'm ready to, I'm not, I'm about to be Dave Ramsey Bonafar from now on. I'm not doing that anymore. Good, good. But what do I do now? Okay. So for, are you guys homeowners? You're homeowners. What's your house worth? Like, what do you owe on it, and what's it worth?

It's at, I want to say, $120. About $120 left on the loan. It's about $250 to $260. Okay. Yeah, the reason I asked is because we kind of say if the HELOC is more than half of what you owe on the house, then you kind of throw it to baby step six and it's part of paying off the house. But if it's less than it's part of baby step two. So for you guys, I would treat this HELOC as though you're in baby step two and paid off in that way. And I think it's possible.

I'm in real estate and, you know, it's had some good years. Last year was tough, but still did pretty well um but i'm torn between you know emergency fund and paying off the heel like how should i attack that because i don't have our emergency fund where i want it okay and you've got the baby on the way um right yeah i i i hear you on that you're technically in stork mode i would say in that in that case which is you just piling up money to save for this baby being born. And the hope is, you know, you stack up a bunch of money. The baby is born. Everything's all good.

You know, maybe you pay the insurance deductible at most and then the rest of it can go on to the debt. And it's kind of like push play on the baby steps at that point. That's what I would do in your situation as far as the idea of saying, I'm going to kind of skip baby step two and I'm going to do baby step three first. I would not do that. Because if you do that, you're honestly putting yourself back in the position that got you into this mess, which is when we don't have savings and when we don't have cash, we use debt to do the things that become emergencies or even the things that we say we want to do. And so having that emergency fund there is so important so that later on you're not dipping into things like the 401k when an emergency comes or a HELOC when the emergency comes.

Got you. Got you. So Lena and a little bit pay you know have a considerable amount in the emergency fund but attack the attack the heloc no so we'll talk let me let me put it to you two ways you're almost there so the baby steps are baby step one's a thousand dollars saved after you get a thousand dollars saved you do baby step two which is pay you pay off all of your consumer debt in your case that's including the heloc and then baby step three is you save up three to six months of expenses. And then you go on baby step four, five, and six on down the road. We don't need to cover those just now. In your case, though, since there is a baby on the way, we kind of call that storm mode, which is whatever baby step that you're on, in your case, baby step two, we stop, pause, and we stack up as much money as we can, knowing that there's a baby coming,

there could be added expenses, and we want to be ready for that. So once the baby comes, and you go, okay, everything's good, you know, like I said, maybe you paid the deductible, but you've still got, I don't know, 10 grand sitting there, that 10 grand doesn't stay there. Now you push play on the baby steps, and it goes back to paying off the debt. Does that make it a little clearer? Yes, that makes perfect sense. Awesome. Listen, that's what Ray would do.

That's what Dan would do. So true. I love that. Hey, Devante, man, listen, I love your spirit. I love that you've got a clear goal ahead of you. And right now, you're working as hard as you can work. You are stacking jobs. You're just not able to be turned down if you're out trying to sell a house or sign up somebody who's looking for a house. You just have got to turn this into big-time intensity, and that's the best thing you can do when you've got this

sense of, oh, I got to provide, and I get that, and I can hear it all over you. And no judging yourself, just moving forward, just turn that angst into effort. And I think if you do that, you will be surprised at how quickly opportunities come to you to make more money so that you can move forward. So, I mean, that's the play. Owen is up next in Nashville.

Owen, how can we help? I mean, that's the play. Owen is up next in Nashville. Owen, how can we help? Hey, guys. I was hoping to get your take on how young couples can kind of navigate car ownership, some things like that. Honestly, I'm actually currently working on my wife's blown-up car repair it, to either keep it or sell it. But man, we've been shopping around for a car in the used market, the new market, and I'm just over here like, wow, do people really buy these things? Like that's too much.

And I'm like, used RAV4 is $30,000 for a used car. I'm like, no, I'm just not doing it. Well, what do you have to spend? Well, kind of whatever I want, but then I'm hitting our savings and things like that, and we have a very large savings for a home right now. So that's kind of what I'm hoping to get through and hopefully get some clarity from other people. What do you want to get?

What kind of a car? What do you want out of it? So currently my wife has a Prius, which is one of the larger small cars and she is pregnant. And so we're expecting a child. So a small SUV to midsize SUV. Yeah. Something like that. Okay. You guys debt free? Completely. Yes. Okay. What about 15 grand? How's that number hit you? No problem. We were going to put that down and try to maybe finance a little extra. No, no, no. I'm saying 15 to 20. If you can do 15, you can do 20 and not feel indigestion, right? Well, we were looking at the 25s, but the problem is for the kind of vehicle that we can get for that price range,

now I have my wife in a car with 200,000 miles on it. Not true. And our new child. Wait a minute. But wait a minute. Even to that degree, my car has 200,000 miles on it almost. We're in the wrong narrative. Oh, and I just bought my son two years ago a Ford Explorer

that had 98,000 miles on it. We got it for $13,000. It's an older model, but it's in phenomenal shape. And it's got, like I said, just at right now, he's only got 101,000 miles on it. So this idea that you can't get something that's decent mileage in the 15 to 20 range is not true. Yeah. Well, and that brings me to the, I guess the frustrating part is when we look at vehicles like that, we always look at each other and say, well, why don't we just keep your Prius then? Because it's about to be, you know, have a rebuilt engine

in it. Does it fit everybody? Well, the baby doesn't care and the baby fits in there. If everybody fits, I thought the reason reason was nobody we couldn't fit as a family in the prius no well she wants something a little bit bigger because the prius is tight here's what i think i think you need to do more shopping well if i were in your shoes i would set my budget first because i i want that to be the driving factor here's what i'm going to spend here's i don't want to spend any more than this number right here right I'd set that first our top cap is 26 okay so to no more than 26,000 and then I just work backwards I say okay what are we looking for we want four doors we want a mid-size we want it to be the color black whatever it is and then run that back because the the options are there they might be higher mileage

and then as you begin to narrow that funnel, you might decide, listen, I thought I cared more about the make and model, but really I care more about the mileage. And I just, for whatever reason, I'm not saying it's right, but you might go, I just don't feel good about a car with 150,000 miles. Fine. That's your prerogative, but it's going to shift the year and the make and model of car that you get. So I think that you just have to have a set of priorities listed in order of most important to least important. And then we're working through that model to actually get where you want to go. And by the way, you get where Owen is by budgeting, by having an idea what it is that you have and you keep it. The best way to make the most of your money, by the way,

is creating and sticking to that budget. And we've got the best tool. It's every dollar, makes it simple to plan spending, track expenses, and save for what matters most to you. It's an easy-to-use app, so go get it. You can get it at the App Store or Google Play or click in the link of our show notes. Get EveryDollar right now for free. This is The Ramsey Show.

Welcome to The Ramsey Show, where we help you win with your money, win in your profession, and win in your relationships. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw is joining me. And the phone number is 888-825-5225. 888-825-5225. Let's go way up there. Anchorage, Alaska.

Have you ever been to Anchorage in all your cruises? I'm a little shocked by this. I've been to Juneau and like Stewart's Ferry. All right. Okay. I spent a summer in Anchorage, Alaska working on a campaign when I was a youngster. Look at you. Yeah, I love it.

It's a beautiful area. Marissa, how can we help? Hi. Well, thanks for taking my call. Sure. Hi. Thanks for taking my call. Can you guys hear me?

Sorry. Yeah, we hear you fine. What's going on? Okay. I live an unconventional life where I live in Alaska half the year running my tourism company, and I live elsewhere the rest of the year. I recently fell in love with San Diego, which is a very expensive area, and where my current income would not allow me to purchase a home.

We're all in love with San Diego. Yeah, I was going to say. No bugs, beautiful area. I get it. It's stunning. So I'm looking for a winter home and I'm on baby step number six. I just don't have a home yet. So my question is, do I stay in San Diego where I probably maybe could never afford a home? Do I look somewhere else and maybe don't love it as much? And understand, too, anywhere that I buy, it's going to not be housed by me for half the year. So how do I make a smart choice here?

Tell us a little bit more on your – well, one, I'd love to know your income. What's your income? About $73,000 this year. And you're traveling – This is only my third year in business. Okay. And is it your business? Yes.

Wow. It's only your third year in business. Give us a quick – because Jade's an entrepreneur. What is the – give us the one-year, two-year, three-year, like you're on Shark Tank. Your projections. Your actual gross revenues in the first, second, third year? Oh, gross revenue. Oh, I couldn't tell you what the revenue was. I can tell you what the profit is.

Yeah, tell us your profit, how your profit has grown. That'll work. It was, let's see, so my very first season, it was about 45. Last year was 50. This year was 73. Next year will be like 90? Well, I hope so. What's the business? I run a tour company, so I have a 25-person shuttle bus, and we drive up in the most beautiful areas. We'd go to a dog sled summer training camp, and we have another tour that goes to a beautiful suspension bridge,

which is just gorgeous and very relaxed. Okay, so now we're starting to get a picture. So if I'm understanding this right, you're going to keep this business, and that's in Alaska six months of the year? Yes. The other six months you would, if things could work out, you would be in San Diego? I'd like to see the sun because um

i'm from western oregon and so the last eight or nine years i've seen rain and rain and some more rain and then rain what part of western oregon i used to live in corvallis oh get out no way i am originally from philomath oregon hey come on philomath i used to get my hair done in from Philomath, Oregon. Hey, come on, Philomath. I used to get my hair done in Philomath. Okay, cool. That's interesting. So let's pretend that, and if you haven't, you should, like let's see what our projections are looking like. Because in my mind, I go, hey, yeah, get somewhere sunny.

Are you okay with her renting for a little bit? Yeah. For a little bit. Yeah, I'm totally open to anything. But not necessarily in San Diego. Yeah, I mean, really, I'm totally open to anything. But not necessarily in San Diego. Yeah, I mean, really, I'm kind of open. I don't have somewhere that I love to live yet in the winter, and I'm looking for the sun.

Well, what would it cost to rent? That's one of my requirements. What would it cost to buy in San Diego? Something small. It's just you. So something. It looks like condos right now are like $350,000, $400,000, but then you also have to add in like the, you know, HOA or the lot fee.

I've looked at trailers. Like I'm- How much money do you have to put down on a home? Um, probably about right now, like right, right now. So before this season, before any more income, about $30,000. Okay. Um, after this next season it should jump up quite a bit good well there's a path right i think there's a path if i

were you how old are you uh 35 35 okay if i were you i'd be looking at it through a couple of lenses number one you've got this really great business that's in anchorage but then you've got another six months of the year where it's like, okay, what am I going to do for work during that period of time? And how does that line up with where I want to live? So I'd be thinking about that equation because it might not be San Diego. Who knows? Maybe you're like, hey, this tour thing works pretty good. I want to live in another place in a sunny place where I can set up some sort of tour business that time of year because I know the business. That's exactly what I was thinking. So San Diego could be that. I really don't know. And it sounds like the most important thing for you is it to be sunny. And so if I can pick a place

that's sunny and a little bit more affordable in this season, it might allow me to really get what I want in San Diego in a later season. So I'm kind of playing that game of, you know, get what you can now so you can get what you really want later. But if you say, well, Jade, I'm pretty much on track to be able to get the $450,000 condo and that's what you want, then there's nothing wrong with that either. And just kind of delaying it until you have the money saved. Right. And I should I should add something in it, too. So when i went up to alaska to start work there about gosh nine years ago i gave up some of my most favorite hobbies because they simply don't exist in that area which is sailboat racing of all things and ballroom dancing

okay so i know it's really weird weird hobbies and i want to get great surfing so it's it's really weird, weird hobbies, and I want to get into kite surfing. So it's kind of that trifecta is a little bit challenging to find. So that's the other thing is, like, how much do I look at, like, okay, what's my next business venture? What's my next, like, investment? What's smart? But how do I also do the things that I gave up eight and nine years ago and I've been lusting after ever since? Well, then at some point, I think it comes down to values.

And I heard you kind of belittle those hobbies. Jade and I, first of all, think both of those hobbies are super cool. And it doesn't matter what we think or anybody else thinks. Those are not hobbies. Those are actually values. I really believe that. And you value what the experience is. And so you choosing at some point to go, I'm going to, as Jade said, make some decisions in the now that will allow me to eventually have the next. So what must happen for you to be able to get

to a place where you live in an area where you can get out on a sailboat, so you're in a coastal area, and I promise you in that coastal area, they have places where you can ballroom dance. So that's easy. So, you know, you start looking at, okay, do I want to be on the East Coast? Am I open to being on the East Coast? Do I want to stay on the West Coast? You know, very different ballgame. If you go to the area where I grew up in Virginia Beach, the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, the cost of living is a massive difference between San Diego. But you can sail and you can ballroom dance. You know, you could go down into North Carolina.

You know, you think of the Outer Banks area. You know, you've got experience of going to this unknown country of Alaska and starting and sustaining a business. So all I'm saying, Jade, is I think she needs to remind herself how accomplished she is. She's got a playbook, and I think she could recreate the playbook. I know. That's right. You're a boss, Marissa. I think you can recreate it, too. I like all of these plans. I think for you, it's about sitting down, making that prioritized list and really starting to think, okay, what must be true in order for this to happen?

If I start another business, you know, that might be a cost. Am I willing for it to cost, you know, cut into the cost of me saving up for a down payment? You know, all of those things. So write down, get your priorities in check. And I think you can do all of it one at a time in the right order.

I'm telling you. I see it, Marissa. I do too. I see her having an awesome tour business, and then she has a long day. She's out on the sailboat. Yeah, out on the dance floor. Love it. This is The Ramsey Show.

The Ramsey Show continues. I'm Ken Coleman, Jade Warshaw with you as well, 888-825-5225. Let's go to Erin in Augusta, Georgia. Erin, how can we help? Yes, so my husband and I have been married for about five years this year, and my daughter is 11, and we have a difference of opinion on what we should spend on her. We get along great.

We communicate great. But when it comes to this, we cannot agree. And I would just like some unbiased opinion. It's everything from she needs something from school to summer camps. I feel like she should be able to go to summer camp and not sit in front of a tablet all summer when he thinks those are a little ridiculous because they are so expensive and that we should not really spend anything extra outside of what our child support is to spend anything on her.

What do you mean? Hold on a second. What do you mean child support? So I get child support from her dad every month, obviously. Okay, gotcha. But that's the only money that I should use for anything school related. $400 a month. And so your husband is going outside of medical and groceries and just keeping this child alive. Anything outside of the basics has to come out of the $300 a month from your ex.

Yes, sir. Interesting. What's your combined incomes? $150,000. Okay. How often does this happen? Yeah. Like, is this a weekly or monthly, or is this just in some of the bigger things like you described, like summer camp?

No. It's everything. Why do you think he's scrutinizing it so much? Because she is a brat. She's 11 she got has a little bit of an attitude they don't get along do they get along no not at all got you got you and her biological dad buys her everything she asks for every single time okay so she's over there yes is she spoiled or does she just get what she needs uh no she's spoiled when it comes to her dad okay so um okay there's a lot going on here i kind of wish dr john was here there's a lot going on here because

on the one hand it's like as a parent parent, I don't say to my son, you're acting, you're acting a type of way right now. And so because of that, I'm not going to, I'm not going to make sure you have the things you need for school, or I'm not going to put you in summer camp. Like that's not my,

that feels retaliatory. And so I don't feel like that's the spirit that we should be making our boundaries out of that the spirit that we make our boundaries out of is our budget and what makes what's a logical use of money for a child right that's the spirit that we used to do that right um i'm curious it how how old was she when you guys got married was he this way from day one yes okay that's what i'm digging very much i don't want to spend money on anything so okay and so what i was here's let me tell you why i asked that question i'm trying to figure out if this is because she's a brat and he resents her

because she's also not his biological daughter. These are all reasonable things that a human being could be struggling with. And I say that, by the way, Erin, not from judgment, but a sense of understanding. But the fact that you said he was this way day one tells me this is more his scarcity mindset about money. Rachel Cruz wrote a book, Know Yourself, Know Your Money, a few years ago, and it was a genius book, in my opinion. And I think he's got, from his childhood, his, so I would say there's two E's. It's our experience and our environment. So his environment growing up shapes his view of money, and then his experience with money up to this point shapes his view of money. So since he was money up to this point shapes his view of money so since he was that way day one sure he could have still had some resentment uh but but

it would have been very small just in her position as not his biological daughter i think it's more that he's a scarcity mindset guy with money he's scared to death. It's hoard, hoard. The resource is not a hoarder. But does he do that in other areas is my question. Is he a tightwad in other categories or is it just as it relates to your daughter? Both. He is a tightwad, but he will spend things. If I wanted something, sure, I could have it. But he grew up, if he wanted something, he had to work for it. So that's exactly what she did. Okay, so I think he also resents your ex and how he spends so lavishly on her. And I do too. You do too. So you know what he's doing? He's correcting. He's course correcting whether he realizes it or not right all right so but i at the same time feel

like i should be able to buy things for her and not feel any kind of way about it i agree going overboard so it's you guys deciding on what's a normal amount and what's considered overboard yeah this is a uh i think this is a therapy session or four because I think you need a, here's what I believe. I really believe that you two need to get with a marriage therapist and it's a safe place. What's great is you guys are not in crisis. You told us you guys get along on everything else. So this should not be too painful, but it might be difficult to get to a middle ground. And I think you need a, I mean, appreciate you calling us. We're not marriage therapists, but I think getting a

objective licensed marriage therapist who can get you two in the room together. And we find middle ground on this. Cause I hearing what I hear, Jade, I'm in the middle. I think he's probably way too tight, but I think you also need to come his way, not in giving into his demands, but understanding maybe where he's coming from. I think this is solved with a lot of understanding. And the daughter needs to understand it because she feels it and probably doesn't know what that is, right? She feels going over to dad's house and it's like, I get what I want. Then she feels going over to dad's house and it's like i get what i want then she feels going over to your house and it's like do these people hate me it's nothing right

why i've told him i don't tell him every time she asks for something because i do say no a lot but all he hears is when i'm in agreeance and she's like, all she does is ask for stuff. And I'm like, well, she's 11. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're going to ask and you can say no, but I, I mean the example you gave about going to summer camp, you know, it depends on what summer camp. It depends on how much, I mean, there's a lot of ways that can go. Jay, that's where the budget comes in. Yeah. That's why I said this has to be guided by the budget, right?

It's not just a free-for-all on any side. We don't just stop it because we just feel like we're going to stop it, but we also don't spend whatever we want. So it's you guys looking at your budget and going, okay, what's a reasonable amount to spend here? Well, when I've asked him that, I'm like, give me a number. And he was like, $500. I'm like, that spends one camp so you got three months i get one camp and she's gonna sit in front of her

phone the other well now now now that part let's let's go to the next extreme because just because she doesn't go to camp doesn't mean she has to sit in front where i come from we went outside and we had to play on our own and we played basketball. Don't get me started. We played with a stick and a box. Okay, make it happen. No. I agree. The caveat is we work full time, so she's with her dad all summer. We let her do whatever she wants.

Being on the phone is what it happens. That's what happens. Well, but again, to Jade's point, I think Jade's locked in on something here, Erin. I'm changing my opinion a little bit. I thought the man giving you $500 for a summer, that's plenty of money to spend on her, if that's what I'm hearing. And I think you have to adjust your life and her lifestyle. Like, great, you work. So come up with a better plan than she's just at her dad's all the time getting spoiled.

So make a fix to that. But throwing more money at it doesn't solve all these issues. It just doesn't. You could send her to camp all the time. You still got to come back to, I think, therapy and a budget. And I think this guy is probably a little bit more reasonable than he sounds. I think so. But he needs a good reason why.

Yeah, yeah. Yes. I think he does, but my reasoning isn't good enough, and I think we argue so bad about it, we just avoid it at this point. Yeah, that's the therapy part of it. I think therapy will change this in such a positive way. I'm hopeful. Like, I really believe this.

If you guys submit to this process and go in and go, okay, I really believe this. If you guys submit to this process and go in and go, okay, we're going to allow ourselves to be open to this process and meet in the middle, I think you guys can solve this. I do too. It's complex,

given the relationship with the divorce and the dad and all this stuff. That's tough. But you guys can figure it out. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you for joining us here on The Ramsey Show. Alongside Jade Warshaw, I'm Ken Coleman. 888-825-5225 is the phone number.

Hey, there's a lot that goes into buying and selling your home. You know this. And it can get scary, very overwhelming, which can kind of paralyze you. and you don't make the move that you really know that you want to make. That's why we created Ramsey's Real Estate Home Base. It's got a ton of tools and resources, including calculators, guides, how-to articles, a podcast, a book, and even a video course, all to help you navigate the buying or selling process. So if that is you, you're going, I think I want to buy, I think I want to sell, and I'm a little nervous, I need some help, go to RamseySolutions.com slash real estate. RamseySolutions.com slash real estate.

Robert's up in Raleigh, North Carolina. Robert, how can we help? Well, I'm trying to figure out how to get my wife home sooner, get her retired sooner. Don't know really where to stack cash. Knife them out Roths. We've done the whole Dave Ramsey jam to get free. Have been for years and just looking to get mama home. I've got an illness and just looking to get Mama home.

I've got an illness and just want to make sure I maximize my time with her. What's her income? We're bringing in about $1.35 a year. What is her part of that? $65 to $70. Okay. What would have to happen for you to not need her income? Well, we've got a 15-year-old. He's the last one to go out.

Probably, you know, get him graduated and then just hit that budget again. Re-evaluate, you know, cut expenses. Well, I mean, you know, we've been on the budget for years, just kind of slicing dice and take fund money down and clothing money allotment down and all different things. I think we could probably do it if she did a couple days of PRN. She's a therapist, and so we might get her completely retired because she wants to keep her licensure and things of that nature.

In case a dude goes up. So how many years do we have left with a 15-year-old? Three or four? Three. He's in 10th grade now. Okay. And the house is paid off too, correct? Correct, yes. Okay. So what's the numerical goal that you want to reach? So you said you've been maxing out Roth IRAs. You said, I'm sure there's other retirement accounts you've been doing if you have one through your job. What's the nest egg at right now?

We're probably sitting about a mil net, including the house. Okay. How much is in retirement versus the amount that's in the home out of that million? About $700. $700 in cash. Okay. And I've got a guaranteed monthly income through the VA

and Social Security. How much will that be, or is that... It's close to $ 80. Okay. Okay. So when you say I want my wife to be retired, you're kind of like working the equation backwards, right? So you're saying, okay, when we look at our budget, how much do we need in order to make things run? You're making $80,000 a year. Is that in perpetuity? Is it going to be $80,000 from your pension and from your Social Security?

It's $80,000 because I go toes up and then my military part gets cut in half and she gets that for the rest of her life. And that would be how much total? About $2,200 for her. $2,200 a month? Yeah. Okay. So that's kind of what I'd be looking at. I'd say, okay, can we live on $80,000 once she stops working? And then when the time comes that you go to heaven, can she live off of the $2,200 plus whatever comes from retirement. Gotcha. And so that's what we're looking at.

And the goal, what you really, in my mind, what's a great thing to aspire to is to be able to live off your interest. So let's make that nest egg so big that whatever we draw off on interest, we can live on that. We don't even have to touch the nest egg. Then we've got something to leave to our children and our children's children. So if you say, how old are you? I'm 52. Okay. So if you say, hey, this lump sum is going to double every seven years, by the time you're 59, you know, you're looking at $1.4 million sitting in that investment account, right? And every seven years. So that's just with you doing nothing.

So if you're actively adding to it, does that make sense? So that's kind of the way my mind would think about this. Right. You know, I'm just, you know, we have excess each month that we just kind of, you know, stack into CDs. And I just, you know, I guess I just need to pivot and start throwing that into the mutual funds. Yes, because in CDs, that rate of return is not going to be anywhere near what you're getting in a mutual fund. We're looking, I mean, you're looking, if you're just in the index, in index funds, you're getting an annualized rate of return of at least 10%, like over time,

right? When we're looking at that. So you can't match that. You can't even come close to that with a CD. So I would get this money invested. I would suggest you get with a SmartVestor Pro to help you with that. If it's something that you need help getting your footing on, SmartVestor Pros are going to, they're vetted by us and they're going to help you do this the Ramsey way. And so that's what I would do. Yeah, I would not throw this in high-yield savings accounts beyond your emergency fund, right? We got to get that invested. So that's what I would do.

You're on the right track, right, Ken? I mean, there's nothing. Yeah, I mean, I think that's why I started asking all those questions, Robert, early is I want to kind of get an idea. We got to back into this. And so the timeline can be affected by how much money we put aside and then the sacrifice piece. So between your benefits, that's a pretty nice chunk. And so you're right. You're at your, you're almost out of your highest

burn rate season of your life when we're talking about kids. So what can you do to maximize that money in the next three years? And then how would you change your lifestyle for her to truly be coming home? What? 80% of the time, 75% of the time? Yeah. And if she worked 10 hours a week, she could keep her licensure and everything. So I would run those numbers. Like what would your income be at her for 10 hours a week? You know, you can figure that out. So 10 hours a week, we've got our benefits still or whatever, our licensing or whatever. We got your 80,000 coming in from your different benefits. And so we start looking at that and we go, okay, that's what we would be bringing in. So then what would we have to have stored away?

And that's how you come up with this. And that tells you now what you have to do but keep in mind anything that you do in those cds and everything you've you're not going to get a huge return on that in three years no you're not no so gotta invest it this is actually like you want to invest for the long haul that's right and here's the reality she may not be able to in three years you know work 10 hours a week. You got to figure that out. Yes. You mentioned it was because of your health. What's your, is there something that you have a prognosis on

that it's limiting your time? Yeah, I've got MS and the, you know, and obviously that's, you know, I'm looking at it as a 25-year timeline before I'm, you know, bed-bound or whatever. But, you know, that's just the average based on the type of MS that I had and everything. So you're also thinking about care for yourself, you know, maybe being able to get somebody to help with your care? Right.

Well, you know, I mean, I've been preaching to my kids since they were young. Hey, you know, we expect some help on the back side. And they're all, you know, they're down with it. And they understand that they're going to have to come along beside mom and help take care of us. Not financially, but, you know, just, you know, be around. And they're, you know. The financial side. I'll be be honest robert the financial side is something that i would consider in this long-term planning because you've got 25 years to think

about okay how can i set my family up because there there is a an implication to that right having the right care if is your wife going to be in a position where she can provide like that the physical strength that might be needed to do those do some of those things so I would be thinking through that not just in the lens of how much does my wife need to live off of but if we need to hire some in-home care what that would cost as well for a 10-year term or for a five-year term something like that so all good things to think about you're thinking thinking about it at the right time. There's still time to do a lot about this. Yeah. Great advice. Robert, thanks for sharing your story with us. Hang in there. You're a good man. Good man. I

love that you're getting ahead of this. Reallyside Jade Warshaw, I'm Ken Coleman. Our scripture of the day is Proverbs 21.5. The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. Our quote of the day from T. Harv Eker, it's simple arithmetic. Your income can grow only to the extent that you do. Wow, wow, wow. I like that. Somebody in the quote department here at Ramsey is crushing it. Let's go to Ginger, who's joining us in Washington, D.C.

Ginger, how can we help? Hey, how are you guys doing? I'm so blessed to be here today with you guys. I've been listening for only about a month. Oh, wow. Welcome. I paid off. Thank you.

I paid off about $30,000 just in one month. Come on, Ginger. No messing around in one month. That's serious. Way to go. What'd you do? What did you unload? Some savings?

You sold something? How'd that happen? Well, paid off a car, uh, paid off a couple of things. Um, but,

um, my biggest question, cause she told me to be brief. I'm going to listen to her because I am one who adheres. There you go. Uh, okay. So my husband and I have about 2 million net worth.

Um, But unfortunately, I think I front-loaded retirement and investments before I invested in my kids' college. Okay. And so now I have a child who graduated, and we paid half of his college, and he has $50,000 left in debt. I have a second child who's currently at Virginia Tech and taking out debt to pay off his college, so we paid half of it. What I'm trying to do is figure out how to pay that because I don't want them to be coming out of college with debt. So we have a 2 million net worth. We only have 60,000 left on our home. Um, so that's where I'm at and I don't want them to come out with it because I didn't know all of this before when we started saving. So, um, it's, it's a fair question, I think. Um, and I, I think. And I had $100,000 in college debt that I paid off. So I thought, it should have some skin in the game, right? So that was my unfair

piece. I mean, skin in the game is good. Skin in the game in the form of debt, not so good. So listen, building a $2 million net worth is great. How much of that is in retirement investments? Can you kind of go through that with me? What's in retirement investments? What's in brokerage accounts and what's in your home? We have 1.6 in retirement and we have about 400 equity in our home. And then we have like, maybe like five or 10, liquid in our our savings like we really have front load of retirement a lot got it yeah you probably shouldn't have done that listen i wouldn't there are worse things that you could have done okay this is not

this is i'm not checking boxes of mistakes here i'm going wow like she saved a lot of money that's pretty awesome right all right. So, um, what I would do, tell me your income. What are you guys making every year? Um, we are close to 300,000. Um, I can make a lot. I'm a pharmacist. I can make a lot of extra money if I want to. I'm working a lot right now because I'm trying to help my kids. Um, my husband's a federal employee and he makes great money. So we have insurance and all that. It's all that no issue. So we have about 300,000, I would say comfortably, more than that probably. Okay. So what I would be thinking about is, so you've got the two kids, one's in college, other one is just now starting.

Are there any more kids or just the two? We have three. Okay. We have one more who's 14 and her dream is to go to NYU. Okay. So let me interject something and then Ken's probably going to take it from here. But what I would be thinking for right now is right now I've got to clear up expectations and I might have to reset some expectations and I might have to, you know, apologize for unclear expectations, right? These are conversations with your kids

to say, hey, I want you guys to be able to go to school. I don't want you to be able to take out student loan debt, but we only are two people and we only have so much money, right? So from here on out, we're going to be, instead of you tackling the college debt that already exists, I'd be focusing on paying current tuition. So you're not taking out more debt. Does that make sense? I'd be like, you know what, if there's debt there, let that sit for a minute. Let's make sure that we're cash flowing it from now on. And then you're setting right expectations with child number three saying,

14 year old, here's what we have. So here are your choices. You're getting this from us. And then from there on, your choices are to get scholarships, to work a little bit, to choose a more affordable school. But what's not an option

is student loan debt. And that's where you guys have to kind of come in and put a clear, just a clear expectation and say, we made that mistake. Here's what it's going to cost you. Here's the issue with it. And make sure they really understand that debt is just not it. And then with the kids who are already in school, like I yeah we're trying to go in and say what does it cost tuition wise every single quarter and are we able to cash flow that and if not are we able to do extra like you said as a pharmacist i get more hours are you able to do extra in order to afford that and if not again it's you going back to the kids and saying here's your part of this. Fair enough.

What do I do with the kid? Yes. So the kid has graduated. How do I reset that and try to help pay the loans that I kind of feel guilty about? What's the total amount of the loans? Because you told me you paid for half. I did pay for half. And did you tell him when you take out the other loans,

it's my responsibility to pay them? Or does he think they're his responsibility to pay them? They think it's his, but it's awful. It's sad because it's only $50,000. I mean... You're feeling bad because you didn't know to have this conversation with him. Right. I know. I wish I would have listened to all this beforehand and done this, but I want to help.

But you're also not paying for the entirety of your other children's school either. You're paying for a portion of it. We had... Definitely, we had set out X amount for each child. So we did. And that's the, that's the money we did. So we had X amount for each child. So there's, but I know now if I could go back, I would pay more. I would have put more in. So I want to go, I want to kind of rewind my story and how can I do that now? You can't. You can't rewind. And I'm not being cute.

I'm not trying to be clever. You can't rewind. So that's the shoulda, couldas, and all that, right? And so what you have to do now is you still have to maintain your financial situation. And like Jade said, Jade gave great advice on what I do with your bills. But I think with this kid, go look. You know what? You've got to start paying your loan back.

And to the extent that you get to a point financially where you can start chipping away at it and help out, that's also your prerogative. But you don't need to feel guilty about it. You've not done this great big disservice. It's just that something, you know? Like for instance, what's the greatest financial priority you have right now for me personally yes

honestly paying their school back i don't think that's the right answer honestly well i know it's your answer is i don't think my right answer is? I don't know. Like, I don't, I feel very comfortable. I have a $2 million net worth. What should my financial partner be? Well, I'm continuing to invest, paying cash, helping cash flow the other kids' colleges. You know, like, I mean, I just think paying off the oldest child student loan should not be your number one priority. And let's reframe it. Okay, so how much did you pay in total

for his college out of your pocket? $40,000. $40,000. I think that's a pretty awesome gift. It's amazing. I think that's an amazing gift. And I think you have to look at it like that because from where we're sitting,

we never say as a parent, you have to pay for 100% of your child's school. It's your job. We don't say that. We say you do what you can afford. You teach them the risks of debt and you do everything you can for them to avoid the debt, right? And to the extent of your knowledge, that is what you did. And I think Ken said a good thing. If you find yourself in a position later on down the road where you can help him chip away at it, that's your prerogative. But if you don't, you gave a wonderful gift of $40,000 where there was once zero.

Yeah. And he signed up for it. So you don't feel bad and you're going to be okay. But you got other priorities, I really firmly believe right now. And you can come back to that. Good stuff, Jade. Always good to be with you, my friend. I want to thank James Childs and our team for keeping us on the air.

Thank you, America, for listening. This is The Ramsey Show.