The Ramsey Show - App - More Millennials Than Ever Are Living With Their Parents (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 24, 2023

George Kamel & Jade Warshaw answer your questions and discuss: What to do with $500k in savings, Millennials living with their parents, "Should I cancel my universal whole life policy?" "How can I move out of my parents' house?" Saving money in the bank vs. investing with an advisor. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pod's moving and storage studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm your host, George Campbell, joined this hour by Jade Warshaw. We are taking your calls at 888-825-5225. Ted is kicking us off in Jacksonville, Florida. Ted, welcome to the show. Hey, guys. How are you guys doing today? We are doing great. A little pep in our step. How can we help? Hey, guys. So I am a newlywed, and my wife and I have a pretty good chunk of change that we would kind of like to know what to do with it. But one little side note, we are potentially going to get a house at some point in time, so we want to maybe have that in a safe spot as well.

Awesome. Well, congrats on marriage. How's that been going? How long ago was this? So far, so good. It's just been about a year. Nice. It's exciting. Do you guys have any debt? No, we are completely debt-free. Love it. All right. So let's talk about this chunk of change. How chunky is it? Pretty chunky. We're very blessed and it is a north of a half a million dollars. Wow. Okay. Where did this money come from? So it's, uh, really just been the job market down here in Florida and the housing market. Uh, my wife and I moved together and we were able to, between her home and, um, some finances that I've had that we were able to combine and have that chunk of change.

Well, give yourself some credit. So she had some equity in the home when she sold it, and then you've been saving like a crazy person. Yes. And granted, I've had some help with my family through some inheritance, but at the same time, we both make over 200 grand, so we've just been saving like crazy ever since. So what's your household income today? It's north of 220. Awesome. Okay. So you're talking about what to do with this savings, and you mentioned the goal of buying a house. Are you guys renting currently? No, I own my home free and clear.

Whoa. How old are you two? We're both in our early 30s. Oh, my goodness. Y'all are different. You guys are really different. I love it. What's the house worth?

It's worth beyond belief. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So we're ultra thankful. but it's pretty amazing. And that's why we just want to make sure that we're not doing anything ridiculous and, you know, hoping to do something in the future that we are just like, wow, it's like the lottery. So we just want to be smart with it. I love it.

What's the house worth that you have right now? It's probably about $300,000, $400,000. Okay. And then you've got $500,000 in cash just sitting in the bank? In high yield savings accounts, yes. Love it. Great. And then any other retirement accounts? She has hers through her work and I have a Roth that I've maxed out for every year. Okay. So you guys are in baby step seven, which means you can invest more than 15%. And so I would, at your age, I would just take advantage of as much investing as I can. And that might look like with your income, you know, mega backdoor Roth with after-tax contributions to your 401k? Do you have that through your employer? I do not, but she does. Okay. So that's one place you can sock away a whole bunch of money. Also, do you have an HSA, either of you? Yes, she does. Okay. So we can

max out her HSA and that money can be invested and that can be used as kind of a side investing retirement tool, which is really cool. And beyond that, I mean, you have brokerage accounts, of course, you can sock that money away and outside of retirement and you'll pay taxes on the growth of that over the years. But that's if you run out of all tax advantage options, you can always turn to that brokerage account. And so I know I've listened to you guys a lot where, so I max out my Roth obviously every year. Would it be smart for me to open an IRA as well on top of that? Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, max out IRAs. Now, you may not be able to contribute to a Roth because of your income limits. So you need to look at that, look into that. If not, you can still contribute to a Roth because of your income limits. So you need to look into that. If not, you can still contribute to the traditional IRA. You may not be able to deduct it on your taxes, but it's still going to be a great retirement option for you. Okay. And you can do a backdoor Roth, which is where you convert those funds to the Roth side and pay the taxes. Okay.

So are you working with a financial advisor right now? No, not currently. That would be my A1. For where you guys are at wanting to maximize this money in this amazing spot, I would get in touch with one of our SmartVestor pros at ramseysolutions.com, and they'll be in the Jacksonville area, and they can walk you through all of the options you could do with this, and then you'll make the decision on where that money goes. But outside of investing, let's talk about giving and spending. Do you have any goals in that arena? So what I'm kind of just starting to do is whenever I'm at a gas station, I'll kind of just seek out a vehicle that doesn't look like someone is having the best day, and I'll buy their tank of gas and no questions asked. Oh, that's awesome. Well, I love that you have the margin with your time and money to even look

around for those opportunities to give. And so I would focus some of it on giving with this savings, with future income. I would focus some of it on spending, set some goals and say, here's the places we want to travel to. We want to upgrade this car. Oh, believe me, we're doing that. Yeah. And so have fun with it too. Because sometimes people like y'all that are so focused on saving and investing, you're so good at that, but it's hard to let go of the money and just enjoy it too. So I'm glad you have some balance there. This is fun.

Yeah, I got that with my wife. She has always been kind of a penny saver too. And so, you know, that's what's made this whole marriage like pretty unbelievable, where our goals are pretty aligned. And we have daily conversations of what we could do, how we can give. Wow. Well, it's a huge factor in why you guys are so wealthy at a young age. Because of those shared values and shared vision, shared goals. Man, you guys are running a million miles an hour. And there's living proof.

Right. And then on the housing side, do you want to upgrade in-house eventually? We do, yes. And that's kind of why we're, you know, holding off on potentially meeting with some financial advisor just because we, you know, want to be able to have that cash on hand to put towards a house. And then after that, that's when I'm going to hone in, you know, meet with a financial advisor and then just invest like crazy from there. I mean, would you say that's fair? Yeah. I mean, because you may just go, hey, we want to use this 500 plus our home's worth 350. We're going to get an $850,000 house. There's nothing wrong with that either.

You've got plenty of time to keep investing. You have an amazing income, no debt. If you just keep this up, I mean, you're already probably Baby Steps millionaires, I imagine, your net worth. Yeah, we're close. Yeah, I would say we're pretty dang close. I love it. But, yeah, I would say we're pretty dang close. I love it. Yeah. Blessed beyond belief. And, you know, for a lot of people that are struggling out there, like, you know,

just always keep a positive attitude because you never know who's going to be at the gas station to help you out. That's so true. Well, Ted, I love your heart. What a beautiful picture of what this looks like when you get on the same page and you start your marriage off on the right foot, completely debt-free, money in the bank. You have options. You've got freedom, man. You've got joy. You can give like no one else, live like no one else. Thank you so much for the call. I'm inspired talking to you. This is The Ramsey Show. The what's up america this is the ramsey show i'm george camel joined by jade warshaw this hour jade this has been a hot topic among the youth of America, among the millennials. And here's the headline.

I want to get your take on this. Millennials are living with their parents at higher rates than past generations, and they're not ashamed. And here's the stats. Since 2020, adults aged 25 to 34 are living at home at higher rates than past generations, said the Census Bureau. And of course, since the onset of the pandemic, young millennials are living with their parents at rates that have not been seen since 1972, and they seem to be in no rush to move out. I mean, that is the fact. I definitely, you know, here's the thing. If I felt like people were really taking that money, paying off debt, stashing away for a down payment and doing well

with this money, I might say, okay, live at home for a season, stack up your life. There's a time when that works. Culturally, there's those situations as well. But we know it says that 48% of these people that are living at home with their parents they are spending a lot of this money on luxury items oh called out handbags watches gucci gucci belts george you know what i'm saying yeah that's the part that i have a problem so morgan stanley did some research about discretionary spending and that's what they're finding is that the no rent that money that would have been used towards rent is going to some discretionary spending that may not be the wisest move yeah i just don't see i don't see how again i just don't see how this is really and that is cracked up to call it out that is the 48

was folks that are 18 to 29. It's saying the older millennial counterparts, they're living at home means things like you're talking about saving for the down payment, waiting for the high mortgage rates to come down, the housing prices, prioritizing spending on experiences like vacations and concerts rather than material goods. I still think there's a time limit.

There's got to be a time limit on this thing, George. Yeah. This whole like, well, I'm just going to live at home until the economy cools down. That's a recipe for disaster. Absolutely. We're not here to bash. Listen, if you're in your 20s or even in your 30s and you're with mom and dad, I'm not here to yell at you, but I do want you to have an exit strategy

and a plan to get out of this. And usually it means let's get our income up. Let's get out of debt. Let's start spending less. This is a great time It's like the student loan pause. It's a great time to pay off your student loans Yes, not the time to go party because there's no payments. Mm-hmm. I agree. So Uh, I moved out when I was 20 and I moved across the country and finished school But when did you move out I moved out so I lived on campus for the first three years of college. Then I was engaged my final year of college and I didn't want to go back and live at home.

So I lived in an apartment where there were not enough rooms for me. So I lived on the couch and I couch served until I got married. And then I moved in with the great Sam Warshaw when we were married. Yeah. And I, when I moved out, I mean, I had roommates up until I was married basically. And so there's nothing wrong with that. You have roommates right now. They're just your family. And I'll tell you, I miss living at home because mom's doing the cooking and she was a very nurturing mother. And so she was like, I'll do the laundry. But it stunted my growth. Like I was getting lazy. Even when I go home for a vacation,

I'm all of a sudden transported back to my childhood self and I have no discipline and I'm sleeping in and you just revert to your former younger version of yourself do you know what's a better version of this that will really keep you motivated and I can say this because I did it instead of living at home George go get roommates just go get roommates you can still save a lot of money maybe not as much money as having no rent but get some roommates pay a little bit a month and then you're going to feel more a you're going to feel more independent but you're also going to feel more like man i got to get out of this situation so i can live by myself i think the home environment it's too comfortable

i wish dave was here because i can hear him in my head it's too comfortable. I wish Dave was here because I can hear him in my head. It's too comfortable. An eagle that doesn't leave the nest is called a turkey. A turkey. You can just picture him saying that. And that's exactly right. There's a level of dignity you get when you move out on your own and you're paying your own bills and it's on you. That level of responsibility, while scary for some financially, man, it just makes you feel like a whole independent person. Absolutely. And I know, here's the thing. I know there's some married couples who are living with the in-laws or living you know at home can i tell you when sam and i got married uh we were living by ourselves but we wanted to save money on rent and we got roommates as married couples we lived on the upstairs of the townhouse and the other people lived on the bottom half of the townhouse. We did it for one year. Saved $600 on rent. Let's go.

Let's go. I love it. Well, hey, you can do this and we're here for you. If you're one of those millennials living at home and you want to get out, we can show you the path financially, how to set yourself up for success. All right, let's go to the phones. Rhett joined us in Salt Lake City. Rhett, welcome to the show. Hello. Thanks for the show. Hello. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. How can we help?

So I signed up for a universal index life policy when I was 24, so five years ago. And now I'm wondering if I should cancel this policy or if I should wait five years and cancel when I don't have any more early cancellation fees. The surrender fees. Yeah, yeah, that's the name. Man, so when I think of this situation, I think of the term sunk cost fallacy, where you stay in something because you've put money into it and you just go, I'll just keep putting money into it until maybe it makes more sense. But I'm getting out of this thing today. And before you just go, I'll just keep putting money into it until maybe it makes more sense. But I'm getting out of this thing today. And before you do that, make sure that you have term life insurance in place. Okay. Do you have term? I am just about to finish one up right now.

Okay. And for everyone listening, for the good of the listeners out there, what are you paying for this universal life insurance policy? It is $245 a month, but I also have a $250,000 disability tied into it and a $10,000 child rider. Oh, wow. Okay. And what's the death benefit? If I were to die today,'s worth 530 um but originally counting out those for 500 000 okay and then the cash value has not built up much at this point so it's worth 30 000 the cash value but as far as canceling it's only worth 2800 today and if i wait five years it's worth 23 000 ouch so what's this thing going to cost you to cancel today? They'll pay me $2,800 to cancel today. And how much have you paid into it over those five years? Roughly $14,500. Okay. So we'll call this uh you know a ten thousand dollar stupid

tax and we'll move on with our life and we'll get term and over those five years you're already going to make your money back just by getting a term life policy that's you know five percent of the cost of this thing right so just for fun um i went and got a quote for a term policy that had that $250,000 disability and the $10,000 child rider. It's roughly $83 a month. So I guess my main question would be, is the disability worth it for me as a self-employed person? Because you're self-employed, you're looking to get the disability insurance in case something happens to you and you're unable to work,, you're looking to get the disability insurance in case something happens to you and you're unable to work but you're still living. Yeah.

I would look at the price without it and see if it's worth the risk for you. Are you in a high-risk position? No. Then I wouldn't worry about that side of it. The 10K child rider, what's that for? Just if one of my children passed away before me. But why would you need life insurance on them? They're not providing an income. That was just something that I signed up for when I was 24.

Okay. So you don't need that as part of this new term policy. So I would price it out and go, hey, what is it going to cost for a half million? What's your income today? It's about $150 a year. I still think, I mean, so $150 a year, we recommend 10 to 12 times your annual income. So that would put you at about $1.5 million in term? Yeah, so I got a quote on a million term,

and it was $30 a month. That, man, that's a heck of a price compared to what you were paying for half of that death benefit right yeah i guess the main thing that i was tied up on is if i paid 15 000 more into it over the next five years it's worth 23 000 i i'm i'm not taking that deal it feels like a gambler in vegas being like just let me work at the slots, man. We're going to get out of this thing. I'm canceling today. This thing is a ripoff, and the entire universal life insurance industry exists to basically rip people off

and make them think it's a wise investment for their future when really you're just paying insane premiums that make those salespeople giant commissions for a long time. So get term, then cancel that universal life policy, my friend. Thanks for the call. This is The Ramsey Show. And about this time of year, we get flooded with calls because everyone is looking for a fresh start with their money. They're not where they want to be financially. And if that's you, you can't wish for things to change and just

expect it to happen. You've got to do some things differently when it comes to money. You've got to have a plan and we can teach you that plan in Financial Peace University. This is the course that will help you rethink how you manage your money, where you're going to learn our proven plan to beat debt and build wealth. Plus, you're going to have access to our financial coaches to help you every step of the way. Nearly 10 million people have taken FPU. It's the same course that Jade and I went through that changed our lives. And if you follow this plan, it can change everything and you can do this thing. And today is the perfect time to start.

And it's because right now we are offering Financial Peace University, get this, $69.99, but only through the end of the month. That is seriously, I've worked here for 10 years, Jade. I've never seen that price on Financial Peace University. So if you've been on the sidelines going, I'll wait, this is it. Don't wait any longer. By the end of the month, this thing's going to be over. So this year, you can have more peace in your finances and your life. Don't wait to do this. Get this limited time offer on Financial Peace University at ramseysolutions.com slash deal. That's ramseysolutions.com slash deal. And if you've been through it, this is a great opportunity to gift it to someone else at a great price as well. ramseysolutions.com slash deal. All right, let's go to the phones. Nick joins us in Newark, New Jersey. Nick, welcome to the show. Hey guys, thank you for taking my call.

Sure. How can we help? So I'm 24 years old. I've been out of college for, it'll be two years in May, and I'm still living with my parents. I'm trying to move out by mid-summer, September is kind of my goal. But I have debt, of course. I have $65,000 in private student loans for college and $19,500 in federal. And that starts up again in, I think, October. And I do have a car loan that's about $15,000 that I pay $296 a month for. And I have $300 of credit card debt, really not much at all. I can pay that off. I make salary and commission, and I also have a side hustle. So I'm in the ballpark of $50,000 a year. It really kind of depends. I would just say that's a good estimate. What are you doing for work? I'm in tech sales. I would just say that's a good estimate. Um, and what are you doing for work?

I'm in tech sales. I work remote. Okay. And my, and my side job's at a golf course. Okay. And I'm contributing to my 401k, you know, 3%. I have a Roth IRA open. I'm, I'm waiting to add to my, a little bit more to my high yield savings to, uh, start contributing to it. But basically, my question for you is, what is your advice for my situation to be able to move out securely in, you know, let's say mid-summer, September? I also, I don't know if I mentioned, I have $22,000 of high-yield savings. My goal is about $28,000 by May.

And what's the goal in the savings side? In savings, the goal is around $30,000 by May. But why? What's the why behind that? I think mentally I just like seeing a big number in there for security. It's kind of just... I'm more freaked out by the other number. Your debt amount compared to your income is scary, dude. Yeah, I have a feeling you're not going to like the car. Yeah, so what kind of car is this?

So originally during COVID, I was working at a supermarket, so I couldn't really do anything. So I bought an Audi A5, and I got a good deal on it, and I sold it after about a year. I made $5,000 off of it, but I now have a 2019 Jetta that I bought almost a year ago. What's it worth? Right now, probably like $14,000, $13,000. And you still owe $15,000 on it. Yeah.

Okay. Well, you called our show. We're going to give you our advice. And, I mean, it's going to be the baby steps, which means we're going to clear most of your savings to throw at the debt. And if you did that, you could clear the credit card and the car loan today and still have money left over, right? Yeah, I could probably have like five something.

What does that do? It frees up your credit card payment and your car payment, which you said was about $300 a month. Yeah, it's $296, yeah. And now we're just attacking the student loans, which while they're on pause means you can actually make progress because it's not accruing interest. Yeah.

So the question is, how much of the student loan debt can we knock out by the fall before you even move out? If I really tried, like $10,000, honestly. If I really tried. Possibly a little more. Well, the advice is I want you to get out, and I think you can. You'll probably have to get a roommate, I imagine, if you're going to stay in Newark, right? Yeah, I'm definitely open to that.

I thought about leaving Jersey, too, for maybe Philly. They're affordable there. Okay. Well, start doing your research on, hey, what is rent going to cost, and how do I get my income up? Because wherever I go, it sounds like you're going to be on the coast. These are high cost of living areas. I know Philly may be slightly cheaper than where you are, but it's still expensive compared to most of America. Yeah. New Jersey definitely isn't the cheapest. So the question is, you can keep doing the Nick plan and that's fine and you'll hopefully get

there one day, but I would rather you follow the Ramsey plan and go, how do we knock out this debt with focused intensity, which means we're pausing that 3% investing contribution until we're debt free with a fully funded emergency fund. Yeah. Because that's going to free up another little chunk of your money. Absolutely. So the question is, where can we free up as much money as possible to attack this debt as aggressively as possible? So you would start with the car and the credit cards and then...

I mean, I would look, if you want to sell the car and go buy something way cheaper with the money you have in the bank, you can do that. Because right now, just based on your income, this is going to take you longer than two years. And anytime it's going to take someone longer than two years to get out of debt, I think more drastic measures are needed. Yeah. And you can't sell your degree, unfortunately. What was your degree in?

Communication. I'm in tech sales now. I am looking to make more money, but I definitely am. But yeah, I would for sure look at different tech sales job because you can make some crazy money in tech sales. So the fact that you're getting 50 K between the side hustle and the tech sales job makes me think, uh, there's something else out there for you. Yeah. What do you think, Jay? Okay. Am I off here? I think you're right on George. I think, you know, in these situations, it's, it's easy to kind of, like we talked about earlier,

wanting to do kind of an ish plan, do the Nick plan. But I really think that in this case, you need to stick to the proven plan and just work these baby steps. Yeah, absolutely. I completely agree. And you'll have that savings account back up in no time once we get out of debt. And if you can get your income. That's the most I've ever had saved. I love looking at it. People get emotionally attached to their savings. And it really is an amazing thing because most people have never

seen that kind of money sitting in their bank account. And so to drain that, to pay off debt, man, it hurts. But yeah, it's a security thing. You're excited about 22 when we're looking at, you know, 80 K sitting on the other side in debt, accruing interest. And that part makes me angry. Go add up all what all your payments are, plus the interest you would pay for the remainder of the term.

And it's going to make you want to punch something. Oh yeah. Every, every month it's, let's say a little over a thousand. And if I had, if I had no debt, I could easily move out right now,

in my opinion. Agreed. Well, we just did a whole segment on millennials unable to move out, feeling like they're unable to, and it's largely due to debt. And we can blame, again, cost of living is wild

and you live in a high cost of living area and inflation is tough and the housing market's tough and the rental market's tough. But you know what else is tough? Paying someone $1,000 a month for the past. I know, that's right. So that is your best tool to fight back against all of this craziness and inflation. And you can do that, but you need margin. And the only way to do that is to get out of debt, spend less,

and make more. Are you doing a consistent monthly budget right now? Yeah, I actually have a spreadsheet. I'm staring at it right in front of me, actually. I love it. Well, I'll do you one better and gift you every dollar premium for one year. That's our budgeting tool. It beats a spreadsheet. I'm no Excel whiz. I don't like to jump in there.

It gives me the heebie-jeebies. And so jump onto every dollar and plug all of your numbers in. There's some great premium features as well, like the paycheck planning tool you can use to make a plan for every single one of those cents coming in, Nick. And if you do that, you're going to start to find areas you've been slouching. We call them money leaks around here. Where you go, yeah, that subscription, I don't need it. Eating out, I don't need it.

I've got goals to get out of mom and dad's house. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get there. Man, thank you for the call. We're pulling for you. And for all of the millennials out there who are going, how much longer do I got to live with mom and dad? Listen, you can get out, but your payments are killing you. It's not the egg prices. It's your payments. Get out of debt. Use the debt snowball. This stuff works every time you work at 18 to 24 months is the average time it takes for folks to get out of debt using this method. You can do this. This is The Ramsey Show, our scripture of the day, John 15, 12.

My command is this, love each other as I have loved you. Jackie Chan once said, in work and in life, no matter how smart, talented, and beautiful you are, you also have to be a good person. We have to treat one another well and really mean it. Everyone can tell if you're doing it out of genuine concern for them or if you're just faking. Let's go to the phones. Shay joins us up next in Jackson,aking. Let's go to the phones. Shea joins us up next in Jackson, Mississippi. Shea, welcome to the show. Thank you. How are you doing? I'm good. How are you? We're doing great. What's going on? I have a question. I have $25,000 in a bank that I had in a CD, a four-year CD. It earned maybe like $200, a little over $200. So I went to the bank to put it in another CD, which would earn 4%. But the financial

advisor at the bank said that I should invest. My question is, should I invest through the bank? I do have a financial advisor for a Roth IRA that I got maybe two years ago. Should I just invest that money with him or should I invest with the bank? Well, it depends. You know, my first inclination is to kind of find out where you are in the baby steps because the way we teach, you know, might determine a different strategy for what you currently had with this money. So right now, do you currently have any debt? No. No debt. I love it. Debt free.

And do you have any money that you're able to just kind of liquid, easy to get to for your three to six months emergency past this 25K, or is that it? No. Outside of the 25 25 i have about 54 oh wow very good is that where is that sitting just in savings account okay and that is that above and beyond six months or is that right at it no there's that's far above in being on six months. So what is your goal with all this money? Well, I'm 50. I feel like I'm a little behind with the investment because I started late. So I'm just trying to see what's the best strategy, I guess, to kind of grow my money the best I can at this quote-unquote late stage.

Have you been doing any investing previously? How much do you have in your nest egg? I have invested with my job. I have about $92,000 with my job. And then, like I said, I just got a Roth, a financial advisor for a Roth IRA about two years, but I think it's only maybe $4,000 in there. Okay. What's your income? $40,000.

Okay. And you have a 401k through your employer? Mm-hmm. Okay. Do they have a Roth option there for the 401k? I think they do. Okay okay i would look into that that could be a good solution for you and you could do all 15 into that roth 401k if that's the case okay it's really easy do you have a house i do okay do you have anything left on the mortgage no oh. Oh, wow. Very good. What's the house worth?

It's probably worth like $65,000, $70,000. Cool. Very good shape. And is that where you plan on retiring in that house? No. I mean, I can, but no. Do you want to move, upgrade a house? What would be the goal? I would like to move out of where I am. I would just like to move to a different location altogether. Okay. Like out of state. Well, as far as the baby steps go, you would be in what we call baby step seven, which is the final step, build wealth and give. And so now is a great time to start to really ratchet up your investing. And that means you could invest more than 15%. And so you could, a great goal for you would be to max out your 401k at work.

And there's catch-up contributions now that you're 50. Okay. And so you want all the tax-advantaged accounts you can get. Match is the best. Do you ever match with your employer? No, we did, but they don't do the match anymore. Okay. So then Roth would be our next best bet, is utilize all the Roth accounts we can, which means a Roth IRA and your Roth 401k. If you can max both of those out, you're going to be in great shape. Okay. So just max out the Roth and

the 401k. Okay. And I would get in touch with a SmartVestor Pro. I don't know what bank this is. They may be fine people at the bank, but the bank is also trying to sell that bank's products and they might try to pitch you on things that I would not recommend. And so I would get a second opinion from a SmartVestor Pro. You can connect with one of those at ramseysolutions.com and they're not tied to any one bank. Okay. So that's who I have. I went through the SmartVestor Pro and that's how I got the financial advisor I have with the Roth. Okay.

Well, I would take their advice and you still make the decisions. Make sure the ball's in your court. They're not going to do anything for you. They're just going to educate you on your options. And then after that, you go, yep, let's do that. I want to put my money in these mutual funds and these index funds. And you should be in better shape than you would have been without investing. So I would put your savings also in a high yield savings account. Right now, it's just with your local bank? Yes. Okay. Look into some high yield savings accounts online. We mentioned some earlier in

the show. There's a bunch out there, Ally and Marcus are some that our team members use here, and that can help your money grow at 4% without locking it into one of those CDs, which I'm not a fan of. Thank you for the call, Shay. I appreciate it. All right, let's get one more in with Haley. Haley, welcome to the show. Hi, how are you?

We are doing great. What's your question? So I'll try to make it quick um so i'm a full-time critical care nurse um i've been a nurse for uh nine years i've been working mad over time ever since covid and i actually got an opportunity to switch careers this past fall to become a high school teacher at a vocational school teaching allied health. And I was really excited to do that because we were out of debt. We were making our way towards our emergency fund. So I felt comfortable doing that. But now the income has really slowed down and we're comfortable, but I just can't get past baby step three. I just feel like it's going so

slow. I'm used to working so much overtime and it's just very discouraging. So I'm just wondering how to deal with that. Um, and if I should just go back to my other career where I was making a ton of money. Well, do you like this career better? Are you passionate about this one versus not caring about the old one? I am. I'm passionate about both. So I actually do still work at the hospital per diem. So I work about two shifts a month. So that definitely helps. And then I can work in the summer.

I love both jobs. There's ups and downs to both. I just kind of needed a change after working so much through COVID and everything. So I am passionate about this job. It's just the income is definitely a bigger hit than I anticipated. How much is the hit? So I mean working overtime at the hospital last year I made $130,000 and now I'm down to $71,000

but based off my yeah but based off my base salary I was a nurse, I was $83,000. So I figured taking the $12,000, $13,000 hit wouldn't be so hard because we were out of debt, we were doing good, and I could still make up some overtime at the hospital. So we're comfortable. We're making our bills and everything. What's your household income total? So with base pay, as a teacher, I'm making $71,000. I can make about $15,000 still at the hospital, and then my husband makes $55,000. Okay. Is there an opportunity for your husband to make more if he switched careers? So since he's an EMT, so there is room for overtime there. He usually, so he works full-time too. He does most of, like, the caretaking of our son,

so I'm usually the one who kind of picks up the overtime just because it's more hourly, so it makes more sense. Well, you're going to be out of this Baby Step 3 slog real soon, so I want you to make a long-term decision that's right for you. So I don't want you to go back to the old job. There's a reason you took this new one. And so I want you to dig deep and go, yes, this was the right choice. We're just feeling the pinch. We keep getting these emergencies that keep popping up, but you can definitely live off 120 something thousand dollars a year with no debt, which is where you guys are at. And so it just looks, you got to look at the budget and go,

what, how does our life look different now that we took this pay cut? And is it worth the choice we made? You're still going forward. You're just going forwards at a slower rate and that's okay. Yeah. I think that's the hardest part. It's just much slower now. So it's like an adjustment. Well, stick it out for six more months. And if you guys are still not making the progress, go back to the other job since you, you liked that one as well. Thanks for the call. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to Jade Warshaw, my co-host, all the guys in the booth keeping the show afloat, and you, America. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, spend wisely, save intentionally, and give generously.

Hey, it's George Camel. If you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey Baby Steps, go to ramseysolutions.com and click on the Get Started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. That's ramseysolutions.com and click Get Started.