The Ramsey Show - App - Money Can’t Buy You Love (How To Spot a Romance Scam) (Hour 3)

Episode Date: June 20, 2023

Ken Coleman & Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss:  "Is there such a thing as good debt?" Romance scams are on the rise, The value of taking your time and stacking cash, "We're $400k in debt as newlyweds; should we sell our house?" "How do I get an apartment with no credit score?" from the blog: Living Without a Credit Score, Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Here's an EveryDollar deal just for our listeners: get a 14-day free trial PLUS $15 off your first year of premium. Click the link below and start budgeting today!” www.everydollar.com/jade    Join a Personality-led FPU class. Click here! Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3cEP4n6 Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Interested in advertising on The Ramsey Show? https://ter.li/s64ye3 Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, this is The Ramsey Show, where we talk with you about your life, specifically your money, your work, and your relationships. I'm Ken Coleman. James Warshaw joins me this hour. The phone number is toll-free for you to jump in so that we can coach you and encourage you.

888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Let's go to Chase, who is joining us on the line in Austin, Texas. Chase, how can we help? So my question was, I was in debt at one point, used the baby steps, got out, actually sold pretty much everything and worked, did jobs where like you work and where you work, you live. So like resorts and stuff. So you're pretty much able to save your entire paycheck.

I was able to get out of all that consumer debt. Anyways, now I'm in school, and I'm fortunate enough I've been able to pay for the school. And I've chosen to take on additional student debt that I don't need at 0% interest. And I'm putting it into CDs. So I'm getting 4.5% on it, but it's liquidable. And so I was just curious, is that a good idea, or is it just debt always bad? I think it's a bad idea.

You've got debt now, and you've got the risk associated with it. Why wouldn't you just take your own money and invest it in mutual funds and get a 10% rate of return and then not carry any debt associated with it? So I'm doing a little bit of that as well. Not in mutual funds, but I'm putting money into a private equity debt fund. But it's liquidable as well, like a mutual fund. But the student loan, because it's in a CD, I mean, unless they're not FDIC insured, I don't think they can class. So my question was, like, it looks like I'm carrying hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on

chase i'm interrupting because jade asked you a very good point playing question that you didn't answer you sounded like a guy running for congress so that was good i'm very smooth how you redirected but why answer her question because i think you called us and she answered your question with a question and so her question is basically saying yeah okay you're getting four and a half percent woohoo but you borrowed to get that why not do what she just said if you're doing it a little bit over somewhere else why wouldn't you do it across the board with this money I know the answer well I want him to answer why I wouldn't put it in a mutual fund? No. My question is, here's, I'll answer the question that I asked you for you.

You want to get rich quick. That's why. That's why you're borrowing money that honestly is supposed to be used for education, and you're putting it in CDs of all things, which if you were going to do it, I'd say at least go all out and invest in a better vehicle. But it's like betting on a snail. The point is you're trying to get rich quick

and that's going to lead to folly because there's no such thing as get rich quick. It doesn't work out. And if it does, honestly, you're just lucky. It's not because of common sense. It's not because of good sense. And we're seeing that more and more. We're seeing YouTube and Instagram and TikTok crazes where it's like leverage. There is such thing as a good debt. And when you use it good, it's called leverage and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. And those equations never equate for two

really important things. A, they never equate for risk, Ken. They always assume that everything's going to go right. Everything's going to be perfect. And they never account for something that here at Ramsey Solutions we think is so important. And that's peace. Yeah. If I'm getting, if I'm gaining wealth, I want to have the peace that goes along with it. I saw a TikTok where the girl was like, I've got six million in debt, but I've also got nine million in assets. And I was like, how do you sleep at night? Like that just that doesn't hit right for me. And here's the thing. You can do what you want to do. You're grown and you can choose to listen to the advice on this show or you can go another route. We're not mad at you. But if you call into this show, we're always going to teach you what we believe is the best, fastest path to wealth. And that is to pay off your consumer debt. It's to take your income, which is your biggest wealth building tool, and to invest it

into good mutual funds over time. And we've done here, here's the thing. Here in Ramsey Solutions, we have done the biggest study of millionaires ever done. And in that study, we studied what do millionaires do? What is the practice? What have they done over the course of time that has allowed them to build this wealth? And you want to know what the answer never is? I took out student loans and invested them in a CD at 4%. That is never, ever, ever the answer. Not to mention, I just don't think it's right. Would you love for the student loan company to know or the government?

Was it government or private loan? Well, God, please not private. Chase? No, no, no. So I qualify based on my income. Yeah, but who gave you it? It's government subsidized. I'm essentially using my income to put it in the CD, because it does go directly to the payment.

You're very talented at mental gymnastics, And this is just not a good idea. It's not a good investing strategy, and it's not what it's intended for. So that's our answer. Again, you're going to do what you want to do on this, but you'd be much better off investing in much better vehicles. With your own money. Yeah. So you still owe the money, pal.

I mean, at the end of the day, you've got to pay it back. And that 4.5% is not going to make the payback that much more exciting either. I just don't think the math even works. So appreciate the call, but I don't know why people get sucked into these ideas. I know why they get sucked in. Who told him about this? I'm sure he saw it, or he might have just come up with it on his own and you know in his mom's basement but the idea it always rolls back to the same thing is I'm young I don't want to fall into the same trap how can I skirt the process how can I get rich quick I don't want to I don't want to

be and I hear this a lot I don't want to wait till I'm 60 to be a millionaire and in his case he's a young guy he he's gonna be if he does it right he'll be a millionaire far far far before 60 or 55 or even 50 if he plays his cards right we have people stand on that debt-free stage every day ken and they come in they're 47 years old they're debt-free baby steps millionaires 45 years old 30 years old we see all the time look at george yeah this cat i don't know how old george is he can't be a day over 33 george is gonna look that way when he's 90 i mean i'm just saying maybe he's 30 who knows he i don't george is a young guy but i'm just saying it's possible and it's completely boring it's not this like sexy thing like he's's like, Oh, I'm taking this money and I'm moving it over here.

Getting 4% that I'm moving. No, it's like, just take your income, invest it in good mutual funds over time. Let the compound interest do its work. And it ain't nothing flashy to talk about. You look up and before you know it,

you know what you have money. Peace. Monty. Yes. Peace. No debt. It's fun. Peace. Munty. Yes. Peace. No debt. It's fun. Yeah, the 4.5% is nothing to get excited about either.

Bro, that's not even inflation. You're not going to get rich on 4.5%. 4.5%. That's a terrible score in the Olympics. It's a terrible, terrible grade on a quiz. I mean, 4.5? Oh, yeah. Nobody gets excited about 4.5 in any area of life.

And with debt. Come on. I don't know. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. I'm joined by the incomparable, the fabulous, Jade Warshaw, ladies and gentlemen. 888-825-52 gentlemen. 888-825-

5225, 888- 825-5225. I can record that after the show, and you could just make that a ringtone or something, or an announcement when you walk into the house. Yes, that's what I need. Here she is. Teach it to Sam and Hill. That's the truth.

Yes, Sam Warshaw, her husband is in the lobby. By the way, made a special guest appearance on the Ramsey Show a little earlier today if you want to check that out. And we're going to talk about romance scams. And I got to tell you, when I saw the show rundown today, I thought maybe I had gotten a scam email. I was like, what?

And I looked at it, and this is what I saw. There's been some headlines in the news. Some of you have seen these headlines. Here's a few. In love with a scammer, local woman loses $500,000. Wow. Iowa says he was robbed of $232,000 in cryptocurrency romance scam. I got questions. That's like a lifetime movie.

I don't know that you can say cryptocurrency and romance in the same sentence. I got questions. Here's another headline. Match Group removes 44 spam accounts every minute. And then, this is crazy. I'd laugh if it wasn't so sad in 2022 nearly 70 000 people reported a romance scam and reported losses hit a staggering 1.3 billion dollars the median reported loss 4400 and only 15 percent of scams are reported so we actually took a call on the Ramsey Show recently where a man called in whose wife was scammed in an online romance scam. Not with him. Oh, man. And she ended up taking out loans for $40,000.

Wow. That's a quick snapshot of something I had not heard of until early this morning. Romance scams. And in today's world, it's very easy to get scammed on a lot of things. But now, these thieves are preying on people's hearts, Jade. What is happening with the world? You got to be careful out there. We can't get desperate. We can't get too thirsty because the next thing we know, we're going to be scammed out of $40,000, $100,000. I saw this one come through yesterday um it was part of a media thing and it said i'm a mom of three who lost my entire 401k oh no to a scammer i met on

tinder oh boy a tinder swindler uh oh that's that feels like a netflix special it is it is oh it is so here's here's how it goes her name is is Rebecca Holloway. She lost $100,000 to a cruel romance scam. And they call this, this is what they call it, pig butchering. Oh my gosh. That's the- It's like the show just got R-rated. What are we talking about? Why is that the term?

Now that part- Do we know? James was explaining it to me. It says she's the third victim to come forward in recent months about this cruel scam. It's known as pig butchering, whereby victims are effectively fattened up. Oh, boy. Because here's the thing. These relationships online.

This is not just like, hey, I slid into your DMs and we've been talking for two weeks. Give me $100,000. No, they go. They fatten you up with a lot of flattery. They're in this for the long haul to make sure you believe it. I got a new term. Flattery fattery. Flattery fattery.

That's it. That's what's happening. I don't know if you can even say that. I just made it up. That's right. They get, they fatten these women up. Oh boy, careful. A lot of times, I'm saying with like flattery and like.

I'm glad you're reporting on this story. Look, I can say it because I get it. Now here's, here's the thing. Over time, and a lot of times they call, they refer to these guys as Freds. It's like Fred from France. That's creepy. He comes in with his, hey, big spender,

and he's got his money, and he's- That's your French accent. I like that. That's my, I don't know what that was, but- Freaky Fred is who that was fattening these ladies this whole thing is out of control so what they do they a lot of times they prey on at least this this article says they're looking for it's a lot of times women who are recently divorced maybe they've come into some money and um it says officials say that this

is exploding across the u.s even the secret service is involved and they're admitting that they're seeing like a ton of cases here so here's what we really want to talk so you get the idea basically what's happening is these women they're meeting guys online and the guy seems too good to be true and they're so enamored by that that they and honestly and i don't mean you know a lot of times i think these women are just so like, oh, wow, he's interested in me. Like, this is great. Like, he's got money. I've got money.

And I think that they're preying on that mindset. And over time, once trust is built, it's, hey, you should be doing what I'm doing. I've got this cryptocurrency and they will send a link and it looks like a real account it looks like a real cryptocurrency it looks like a real investment account and these women are transferring the money in and here's the here's the part that i want you to hear sight unseen these are men that you've not ever seen or been able to reach out and touch yeah in real life oh they're just uh virtual men you don't even know if it's a dude look okay and what do we call what is that catfishing catfishing i learned that a couple years ago yeah we don't know who's behind the screen um but the fact is these women

are giving money so let's ken talk about just what i'm gonna call you know well there's two things all right first of all we'll teach you some investing here in a second all right but Ken talk about just what I'm going to call, you know. Well, there's two things. All right. First of all, we'll teach you some investing here in a second. All right. But let's just not get into online relationships. Well, no. Let's stop there. But wait, Ken, because some folks, that's where people meet sometimes.

I know. Okay. Let me clarify. Thank you for clarifying. I mean, your entire relationship isn't online. Yeah, you got to meet the... Dude needs some skin in the game before he's asking for someifying. I mean, your entire relationship isn't online. Yeah, you got to meet the... Dude needs some skin in the game before he's asking for some dough. Yeah, can we meet at Five Guys?

How about some flowers and a burger at least? Yeah. That's what I mean. Well, when the... It's not real. It's got to be real. So stop this nonsense. The girl in the article, she says, we FaceTimed, but he kept finding ways.

It was hard for me to get a picture of his face. He kept stepping away or being far from the camera. Yeah, well, there you go. There's your sign. Here's my point. If he doesn't want to take you out on a date and spend his money on you, then we're not continuing the conversation. I just had to get that out of my system.

No, you're right, Ken. You're right. Stop it. You are not that lonely. You are not that desperate. I need to lay my eyes on your face in real life. Right. And then don't invest with anybody like that.

You need a smart investor pro. These are men and women that we trust. They have been in the business. They are winning in the business for people. And they have the heart of a teacher. We vet them because we say, look, if we're going to allow people to come and know about you and your area and they meet with you, you've got to take good care of them. And if you look at the facts about real investing, all right, not scams online, get-rich-quick schemes, if you invest $100 a month from 25 to 65, you're going to have

around $1 million for retirement. That's not a scam. That's not too good to be true. That's based on the long-term average return of the S&P 500, folks. Real facts, real numbers. So a huge predictor of investing success is not the rate of return, but that you actually invest and you stay with it. This is not get rich quick. You need a pro in your corner so that they can answer your questions to the point that you understand everything and you don't have them tell you what to do. You tell them what to do with your money because you now understand how it works. No shady FaceTimes. No catfish strategies. Real people, real strategies. We can connect you to a smart investor pro.

And maybe they'll meet with you face to face yeah maybe they eat sleep and breathe investments and they'll take time to work with you go to ramseysolutions.com smart investor that's ramseysolutions.com smart investor i gotta tell you it i'm shocked at the numbers we just shared but at the same time when you don't know who you are what you're about what money strategies really work it's not just their hearts that are being scammed their brains are being scammed well that's what she says in here it's both that's what she says in the article. She was like, I feel like psychologically I was scammed. There's no question. But if you don't understand money, someone can manipulate you that way.

And that's what we're about here. We want you to understand how money works, how you can take control of your money, and how you can make it work for you. It should never be complicated, and it should never just be, oh, do this one thing one time, and then boom, collect a big check. Yeah. Don't give anybody money on the internet.

Period. Nowhere. Not on Instagram, Facebook, Tinder, TikTok, none of them. Don't give them money. Yeah. Not the Romancer, not the Nigerian Prince. Nobody. Don't give anybody the money.

All right? Tindler Swindler. Wow. This is scary stuff, folks. But we're here for you. Don't move. More of the show and your calls coming up. This is The Ramsey Show.

Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw joins me in studio this hour. 888-825-5225 is the number. 888-825-5225. Let number, 888-825-5225. Let's go to Phoenix, Arizona, where Cam awaits. Cam, how can we help? Hey, so me and my wife are both 22.

She just graduated. I have a year left. And we have no debt, a fully funded six-month emergency fund. And then we just have 15K just sitting in our bank and we're wondering what route should we go with this money and what should we look to do with it? Ding, ding. That's exciting.

So you guys are coming out of school, no debt. You've got the fully funded emergency fund. What's the marriage plan? We are married. You're not married? No, we are. plan uh we are married you're not married no we are married okay i don't know why sorry i missed that little point so are you guys interested in home ownership yeah that is one thing we just don't know if that's good right now or what we should do in the next like year or so with that money. I mean, it really, it's up to you guys sitting down and talking about what your goals are. You know, logically, when we think about

money, typically you get married, paying off your debt, you're setting yourself up. And depending on what your lifestyle of choice is, a lot of folks do look into home ownership simply because they want a place to live and they want to build wealth and they know that that is a key component over time of building wealth. So I do think that's something important to consider on down the line. But if you guys are the type where you're like, hey, we want to backpack across Europe or we want to do all these other things. I mean, tell me a little bit about what you guys see for the future, even just the next five years? Yeah, I would say getting into home ownership is the biggest thing and trying to maybe get one, maybe a rental property or something like that. I was just curious with, so if we make about like 65K right now and then when I graduate, it'll be a little bit over 100 together. You're saying

just save and look into the housing market. Yeah, I like that. Now, if you're interested in real estate, like as rent as, you know, landlords, I would suggest that you get into real estate first with a primary residence. So then you kind of understand, okay, this is what homeownership looks like. This is what repairs look like. This is what I can expect. And I feel like that's a great way to get your feet wet. And then over time, you could pay up, save up and pay cash for a rental

after your primary residence is paid off. That's the way that we would suggest doing it. So, I mean, you're 22, the world is your oyster. You've got plenty of time. It sounds like right now you're just kind of in a dreaming stage, like what could we do? You know, when I graduate, we could do this, we could do that. And I would say A1 is keep that 15K, keep it liquid. I would not invest it if you're interested at, you know, in purchasing a house in the next five years and just keep adding

to it. Keep saving up and keep being intentional so that if the time is right, you can pull the trigger. Yeah. Yeah. There's an old phrase. I don't know if you're young, too young to remember this. My mom and dad used to say, don't let that money burn a hole in your pocket. They give you like 50 cents or something. And what that meant was, is, you know, don't be in a hurry to spend it. And I think in this case, the 15,000, I don't think you have to do much of anything with the $15,000. I would build it. Build, build, build, walk through the baby steps. And I mean, again, the reason we have the baby steps is because that's where you guys are headed and it's going to get you through the journey. And so I would just stack cash. I don't think enough young couples realize how valuable it is to stack cash. Don't

rush into home ownership. That's right. You just don't need to, but stacking cash gives you options, and I think, Jade, you nailed that. So that's really good advice. Cam, thank you so much for the call and for listening and watching the program. Michael's up in West Palm Beach, Florida. I love me some West Palm. I'm going to tell you that right now. Michael, how can we help? Hey, guys. How's it going? My wife and I are actually recently married.

Congratulations. Thank you. We just hit the four-month mark. Oh, my gosh. Come on, somebody. You're still in la-la land, man. You don't even know what it's like to be married yet. It's still early, somebody. You're still in la-la land, man. You don't even know what it's like to be married yet. It's still early, pal.

I think that's probably true. I know it is. So what's going on? Together, my wife and I have, personal loans, and credit cards. Can you break that down? How much is the mortgage? Three ten. Okay, that makes me feel better.

Yeah. It makes me feel better too. Go through the two cars. What's the two cars? So the two cars are about $45,000. Then we have about $30,000 in personal loans and about $20,000 in credit cards. Break the cars down more. What are they each loan and what are they worth?

So one's $20,000. One is, the other one's $25,000. The one that's $25,000, we're probably in pretty good shape on it. The other one that's $20,000, we're upside down by about $6,000. How much? So if you're in good shape on $25,000, what does that mean? I honestly think we could probably sell it and make about $5,000. Okay. Interesting. Okay. So go ahead. We, our house. So part of what we're trying to figure out is if we should sell our house. And the reason for that is I purchased

the home in 2021. So I've actually lived in that home for the past two years as my primary resident. Okay. And it's a multifamily home. So I've lived in the front unit and I rented a room out in it. And then the back unit ran as an Airbnb. Okay. And so the back unit produced around 30,000 a year. Okay. So what we could do and what we're contemplating doing is right now the value of the home is at about $500,000. And that's based on comps in the area. So if we were to sell, we would pay off all debt, literally all the debt that we have. We would rent. However, renting is a little more expensive

than what our mortgage would be. It is. Yeah. But that would do you want to get it? You don't want to be a you don't want to be a landlord or be Airbnb person anymore. You just want to live in a normal home with your with your girl. I do want to we do want to just have a house. Now, we don't want to be an Airbnb necessarily, but a long-term goal would be to have some rental properties. Right, but separate from where you live. Like, you don't want them in your house. And I get that. Yeah, sell it.

Yeah, I'm not mad at that. Sell it, clear your debt. Look, I'm with you. I don't want, you know, the Joneses living in my basement i want a a house just just for myself with my husband so i can understand that um you'd be able to clear your debt you'd rent for a while you'd have a little bit of money um left over to start saving towards you know a down payment on another house but you could take your time nothing wrong with renting by the way um and and rent till you can accomplish your goal. Sam and I rented for 10 years, okay? And look at you now.

And look at us, yeah. So I'm not mad at that. No, absolutely. Listen, you got to sell the house. Sell the house. Go ahead. Sell the house. All right, I'm writing it down.

Listen, don't write it down. Do it. I mean, listen, brother, because Jade is right. You clear all this debt. You take care of a bunch of mistakes that you guys have made. We're free of that, okay? And now she's right. You're going to have leftover money that you can immediately put into your Baby Step 3

and then work on 3B. Baby Step 3 is the three- to six-month emergency fund. So you get a head start on the emergency fund while you're renting, and then you're saving up on 3B. Baby step three is the three to six month emergency fund. So you get a head start on the emergency fund while you're renting and then you're saving up for 3B and you guys are going to be, you're going to be everyday millionaires if you just make this decision now,

clear off the debt and make a commitment to never do it again. And here's the fact, we don't usually say, sell your house and clear your debt. But in this case, it's like, well, they don't want this long-term. Well, it's a multifamily home.

It's really something that was supposed to be an income property. Yes, that's right. So in this case, it makes sense to do, but I don't want people listening going, that's the solution. Just sell my house and I don't have to go through this hard,

you know, pain and heartache. That's not what we're saying at all. This is a different type of situation. It is. It absolutely is. And I'm excited for you guys. Four months into marriage and you guys can be debt-free pretty quick. That's an exciting future.

It's going to make learning how to be married a lot easier. I'll tell you that right now. Four months. They don't even have bad breath yet. Okay. Isn't that the truth? She probably still wears makeup to bed. Okay.

I don't know. Do the kids do that? I don't know. Your girl ain't doing that. That's a fact. All right, folks. Don't move. Okay. I don't know. Do the kids do that? I don't know what's happening. Your girl ain't doing that. That's a fact. All right, folks, don't move. She's Jade Warshaw. I'm Ken Coleman, and you're listening to The Ramsey Show.

Welcome back, America. You are listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman. Jade Warshaw is my colleague and co-host this hour. 888-825-5225 is the number to jump in. 888-825-5225. Our scripture of the day comes from James 1, 12. I'm going to tell you something.

Anytime I read from James, I get a little, I sit upright because he brings it. James for breakfast. He brings it. Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. And our quote from old Tom Morris, the grandfather of golf, Thomas Morris, his name. For true success, it matters what our goals are, and it matters how we go about attaining them. The means are as important as the ends.

How we get there is as important as where we go. So there you go. Good stuff there. And, Jade, you've got something you're pretty fired up about, pretty excited about, we were just talking about during the break. I've got to tell the people, when Sam and I were working to get out of debt, and some of you know, $460,000 of debt, there was one component that was like a silver bullet, if you will, Ken Coleman, and that is

our budgeting and our budget. And in the beginning, we started off with pen and paper, you know, you're on that yellow pad going. And then Ramsey Solutions came out with something called Every Dollar. It was a digital budget, came out in like 2017, and it's still going, and it's better than ever. And I've got to tell people, this is the missing component. The way EveryDollar is these days, guys, if you had it before and maybe you download the app and then you never use it, go back into the app. I'm telling you, I'm looking directly at you. Go back into the the app there are so many features there that are so if you have irregular income they've got the paycheck planning if you are trying to look ahead and figure out how long is it going to take me to pay off this debt how long is it going to save me

to take me to save for a house they've got the financial road mapping plan it will help you it will change the game for you and so this is what i want to tell you about i talked to the guys over there they're like jade we're going to structure a deal for these folks. All right. We got a deal. We got a deal. I'm going into my set it and forget it mode right here. You can sign up today using the code that they will put on the screen. It's got my name. It's like a little promo code. Or you can find it in the show notes if you're listening on podcasts and you're going to get a 14 day free trial. So you can test drive it, test it out, see how you like it. I can already tell you, you're going to love it.

And then, because you signed up, you're going to get $15 off, which is a big deal because the whole thing only costs, what, $70, $80? $80. So you get $15 off. That's a big deal. Everydollar.com slash jade. Now, that's an easy URL to remember. You wouldn't remember, Kent. That's right. But I promise you, everydollar.com slash jade. Now that's an easy URL to remember. You wouldn't remember, Kent.

That's right. But I promise you, every dollar dot com slash jade. And they got a photo of me. What am I looking at? It looks like I'm looking at every dollar. You look, you know, you look. It ain't bad. You're looking fabulous.

I'm the color of money right there. You got the lime green thing going on. It's fantastic. Let's go, guys. Every dollar dot com slash jade or use the promo code jade in our store to get a digital or physical gift card. There it is.'s go, guys. Everydollar.com slash Jade or use the promo code Jade in our store to get a digital or physical gift card. There it is. All right, guys. Every dollar, every dollar premium.

That's what you need to do. You heard it here first. Thank you, Ken. Fantastic stuff. Steven is up now in San Antonio, Texas. Steven, how can we help? Hey, how's it going, guys? We're having a blast.

What's going on with you? Nothing much. I just graduated. I'm 22 years old. I just graduated from college about three weeks ago. Congratulations, young man. Nice job. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My degree is in finance, and I've been applying for jobs for like the last two months now. And yesterday I completed my second interview out of three for a job position in Dallas. Um, I'm debt free. I've never had any type of credit cards or anything like that. So I don't have a credit score. So when it's time to start applying for apartments how how do i qualify or how do i get an apartment without having any prior like um credit history or anything like that

so when it comes to getting an apartment you don't need a credit score to get an apartment. Now, there might be some apartments that are, you know, bozos and make you have a credit score and you'll just brush the dust off your feet and go to the next apartment, right? So there's plenty out there that will allow you to do that. What I would suggest now is anytime you can have any record of where you've lived and paid rent. So even if you're living with your parents, make sure that you're paying them something and that you can keep record that, hey, I've been able to pay rent. Obviously, things like utilities, anything that you're paying payments on, cell phones, those sorts of things, save that and keep record of that because they

basically want to know that you can pay. And here's the, you know, at the end of the day, sometimes when you choose to use cash, there is a little bit of a premium that comes with that for your freedom, which is sometimes they'll make you do first and last month's rent, or they might, you know, have some extra, you know, double first and last month's rent because they want to make sure you have the money even though your whole life is built on you having money. So just be ready for those extra costs that they might ask you to do. But at the end of the day, you are able to. Yeah, you can. And again, Jane's right. We have a system and that system has been gamed against us. And that's what the whole credit score is about. It's actually not a score of something you've done right. It's just a function score of something you've done right.

It's just a function of how much debt you've had and how much you've made your payments. And so again, be okay to be courageous enough to push back and go, okay, listen, the reason I don't have his debt is I'm never going to have debt. And so I'm actually the kind of tenant you want to have because I'm not going to be over my skis with too much debt or any debt. And can I show you my payment history? That's right. I'm willing to put down two months deposit. You know, have a conversation because a lot of these apartment companies, their policy

are set by somebody way up the ladder. Okay. Yes. Right. And common sense wins the day sometimes. Yeah. And I'm glad Jade told you. There will be some that will look at you and go,

I'm sorry, it's our policy, and then you have to go somewhere else. Somewhere where they use their brains, basically. So do be prepared. It's not a guarantee. But also don't be afraid to work it a little bit because what do you have to lose? Nothing at all.

Yeah. Sam and I were able to get apartments several times over and you know it's like ken said go somewhere where they're you know they're actually turning on their brain and using critical thinking and for us a lot of times it was like look here's our here's our payment history here's our bank stubs look we've got money in the bank like that sort of thing so thanks for the call, Stephen. Excited for you, my young friend. You're going to do great. We get one more in here. Tim from Saginaw, Michigan. Tim, how can we help? Hi. I have a auto loan that I've been mandated to pay through a judgment of divorce, and it's at a fairly low rate. So I'm just asking, am I better off trying to pay it down quickly or pay it for the remainder of the time, you know,

and try to save more in my 401k, or what would you suggest? I always, always, always suggest paying off debt as quickly as possible. Okay. Always, especially for many reasons. In this case, I'm sure there's interest accumulating, which who wants to pay interest? I would rather gain compound interest later on down the road. So I want to free up as much of my income as quickly as possible so that later on, like what you mentioned, you can invest more and can do more of that. And, you know, what's the, how much do you owe on this car? It's 13.2 and the interest rate is at 2.75. Yeah. Is it your only debt?

Yes. Yeah. How quickly do you think you could knock that out with your income? I could probably do at least half the time because I have to pay pals, spousal support and that type of thing. So, but I could probably knock a couple half the time because I have to pay pals to support and that type of thing. But I could probably knock a couple years off of it. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'd say go gazelle intense, which around here that just means going all out, hard in the paint to get this thing knocked out. How old are you? I'm 58.

Yeah, get that thing knocked out, man. Tim, Jade gave you great financial advice, but I'm going to give you, I think there's an emotional piece to this particular situation. She's right. She's going to be right every time on why you should pay the debt off quicker and not just play out all the payments. But this is a divorce and you're 58 and I'd pay this off in the next year if I could. Because I want to remove. You already got spousal payments.

I want to remove this debt financially, but also emotionally, and move past this, my friend. I'd take on a second job, weekend work, just to pay this stupid car off. I'd get mad about it and then be free of it, my friend. And the financial and the emotional benefits are going to be worth it. Jade Warshaw, great, great hour. Thanks for being with me and riding shotgun as always. James Childs, our fearless leader in the booth and all of the fellas. And you, America, we do it for you. This is your show. This is The Ramsey Show.

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