The Ramsey Show - App - My Fiancé Wants to Keep an Expensive Horse (Hour 3)

Episode Date: February 18, 2020

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios. It's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. We're glad you are here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. It's God's and Grandma's ways of handling money. Common sense, which is now so rare that having it is like having a superpower. Open phones, 888-825-5225. Ann's with us in Atlanta, Georgia.

Hi, Ann. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up in your world? Okay. So I read your book a couple years ago.

My son gave it to me, and it piqued my interest. I ended up taking SPU. And now I'm just kind of thinking about what is my next step. I'm really wanting to retire in two years. I'm really wanting to retire in two years. I'm 58. I have about $215,000 in retirement money. I don't have a lot of cash. I have in total about $12,000 in cash, and I also have a $15,000 pension that I would get upon retirement. My desire is to possibly do some real estate, but I feel like I don't know if I have enough to do real estate. And just what my next move is, I'm really frustrated with my job and I'm just ready to go right now, but I don't know if this

is the time. Gotcha. Okay. So there's a couple possible things you could do. The $15,000 pension is a lump sum or that's a year? It's a lump sum. Okay. So you would just roll that into an IRA when you leave if you've got the lump sum option with that. So it gives you $230,000 to work with at 60 years old is what we're talking about. And, of course, later on, you could, uh, apply for social security and, you know, join that either early or at 65, either one can't do that at age

60, obviously. So, uh, couple possibilities. Uh, one is you could do a little bit of real estate. I mean, you can cash out some of that 215,000. And, um, you know, if you bought a $50,000 property, that kind of a thing. I would not tell you as an inexperienced real estate person, I love real estate. I've got a bunch of real estate. I'm an advocate of owning real estate, but I would not tell you to take, you know, your only $200,000 and buy a $200,000 piece of real estate. That could be disastrous for you. I mean, if you make a mistake in that as a newbie, that's kind of, you know,

going to the racetrack betting all your money on one horse in one race. And that would scare me to death. I would tell you not to do that. But if you could find something inexpensive and you wanted to fool with a small rental property, and that would be pretty small, $50,000 would be, and you want to just try something out, you know your hand at it that's fine it's not devastating uh it's not my preference the second thing that comes to mind here is you're only 60 at that point you're only 58 now and i say only uh when i was 20 i thought that was really really old but now that i'm 57 i don't think that's

really old anymore so a lot of people in our age group yours and mine were the same age approximately uh when they leave their uh main career and retire have what we call an encore career and for the next you know 15 years from 60 to 75 have a second career and many times it's a small business idea or it's something that they've always wanted to do and they're really good at it and it's more lucrative than their original career not unusual at all and it's not an act of desperation i have to work because i'm too broke to retire It's more like you got a lot of earning potential still left in you, and you may want to do something that you enjoy. Now, I get it that the place you're at, you're done with.

Right, and so that's kind of my question for you, Dave. Also, I don't make a lot of money. I mean, I'm pretty good. I do have a paid-for house as well. I meant to mention that. mean, I'm pretty good. I do have a paid for house as well. I meant to mention that. Yeah, you've done great. But I don't feel like I have enough income to be able to start that encore career like I would like to start right now if I could. My husband is deceased. I do get a $600 check every month for him. But I was advised by one of your ELPs last year that I could start drawing on his Social

Security at 55 and a half. Would you suggest that I do that? It wouldn't hurt, because that'll give you that income. Yeah, that'll give you some income flowing and minimize the fear. But I mean, what would your encore career be? I would love to do real estate. As a salesman? I'm involved in real estate.

As an investor or As a salesman? My kids are involved in real estate, so we do have... As an investor or as a salesman? No, as an investor. Okay. You don't have enough money to make a living on real estate. That's what I'm saying. If you bought four $50,000 houses with your only $200,000, that would scare me to death as a new investor. So I might look for an alternative i can tell you to do that as my sister i would say sister don't do that right i am saying that

so but but what i would say is let's find some you know maybe get a real estate license start selling real estate start working towards that now and maybe buy one piece of real estate with some of your money but i really wouldn't go all, slide all the chips at the poker table on one hand, and go real estate with one piece of real estate or two pieces of real estate when you're only on your very first real estate deal and your whole retirement nest egg's on the line. That just scares the crud out of me. I can't tell you to do that.

So, hey, thank you for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. It means even if you mess up, if you mismeasure or you pick the wrong color, they're going to remake your window blind for free. With Blinds.com, you also get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you're going to save money.

Check out the promo code RamSY at blinds.com. Vicki says, I work for the state government, and every month I have to attend a meeting where a committee decides if people are approved or denied a loan for assistive equipment. We review their credit history and all the traditional junk. I cringe just reviewing them almost every single time the entire committee unanimously approves the loan should i go along with the group because it wouldn't matter anyway or should i continually abstain and therefore irritate my supervisor

i've discussed removing myself from the committee but i'm basically ordered to be part of it um well i would just tell them i can't go along on principle with what you're doing. I don't understand the whole concept of what you're doing unless it's someone coming in. The state is approving the loan, and the state's loaning them the money of some kind. You're putting someone who sounds like somebody's disabled, and they need some help with equipment of some kind, and the state's getting them into debt. I agree with you. That's a bad thing.

And so, I mean, you you got a couple of choices one you can you know you continue the track you're on and just abstain two you just say listen i really do not think this is good for these folks and as a matter of conscience i need you to take me off this committee it's not a good thing i do not agree with it um and so step aside from it that kind of thing um and anyway yeah yeah you know of course the worst option is is you quit or you get fired to get away from it and you know i'm not suggesting something that extreme but you know you do have to it just tears the guts out of your inside of your body and your heart to do things that are against your conscience, against your ethics, against your integrity. You just can't do it.

And on an ongoing basis, I just don't recommend that. You will not prosper in that setting anywhere in your life. Hey, thank you for writing in. I appreciate Blinds.com sponsoring your question. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We've been voted one of the best places to work in Nashville 11 times. You want to know how we do it? Well, our team has been using LinkedIn jobs for years to find the best people from all over the country to come and help us change lives. Think about it.

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Hi, Kristen. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve. What's up? Well, I'm calling with good news. We are pregnant with our fourth baby. Yay. And yes, we're doing mid-June. And we were finishing up baby step number two when we found out we were pregnant. Well, we've got a big shovel and we had a big pile of debt. So we finished that up. There was about 9,000 left. And then we started on baby step three and built that

up and started four or five. But I'm struggling with going to six. And so I was hoping you could help me and let me know what you think I should do. What are you struggling with? Well, because I don't know exactly. I mean, well, our income is great. And so I just kind of started piling the money. And now we have $100,000 sitting there in the last six months. And I don't know, should I cut it back down to about 20?

I'm working two jobs because my one job does not have any benefits. It's a small business, so no short term. So I'm working an as-needed job as a nurse practitioner. And so I've been bringing in an extra, you know, double six-figure income. And so I'm not going to have any maternity pay when I'm on leave. So I'm going to have to use that income. And so... Are you single?

No, I'm married. What does he make? He makes about 50. Okay. And so, and you make what? I make 140 at the job that doesn't have any benefits and then my side job i just pick up and um it's a six-figure income it just matters on how much i work but i'm not going to be doing that once baby comes i'm just doing it what do you do are you a doc i'm a nurse practitioner

okay yeah i was guessing all right good yeah it's a pretty good side job, that's what I was guessing. Okay, so the deal is this. What does your household need while you're out on maternity leave to subsidize, to lay with his income to replace the fact that you're not making any money, right? Right, probably about $3,000. A month? A month, yeah. Okay. How many months are you going to take off?

Three. That would be $9,000. Let's double that and call it $20,000. You've already got your emergency fund that you called $20,000, right? Yeah. So we're going to have $20,000 as an emergency fund. I'm going to set another $20,000 over to the side to make sure everything's okay. You want to set 30 over there?

I don't care. Just to make sure everything's okay. Another 50,000 on the house. And then, you know, I'm just trying to make sure you're okay, you know, while you're out. Sounds like you guys are saving almost all your income already. We are. Yeah. So, I mean, and and you know you've

been working your butt off so what's the long-term plan with four kids for you um well um i also have a direct sale company that kind of took off too i guess i didn't mention that but i don't know how that income's gonna go um like a multi-level marketing um so that i haven't touched that either and uh so i don't know maybe I can just live off of that and not even go back to work or just work part-time. Okay. Yeah, so I think that's not a lot of my fault. As long as you go make one of these six-figure incomes somewhere

and you've got two or three of them floating around to add with his 50, you guys are going to be fine, right? Right. So we don't have to have a pile of money to offset that because you're not going to pull up and just stop is what you're telling me. No, I'll make six figures one way or another. Yeah, that's what it sounds like, at least. And then so, you know, I think you set 30 aside for maternity leave,

set 20 over in your emergency fund does that make you comfortable yeah i think so we just we were in so much debt um i'm not i'm not trying to get you into debt no no no it just you know we we went from this frugal lifestyle that we just have maintained it yeah and so all i'm trying to say is let's just think through this logically and and it part of being logical with personal finance is addressing the emotional need and that's all i'm doing i'm saying you got an emotional need an actual need of maternity leave and we said it was nine thousand dollars we've upped it to 30 does that cover the emotions please yeah yeah really did i bump up my husband's truck that's i don't care if you want to move him up in truck that's fine what's he driving how old's the truck

oh it's a 2006 for a dodge pickup okay and so it's worth 10 yeah and he wants to move to it he wants to move to a 20 well you got the money i don't care doesn't matter if this is the time this is the time you do this you're working baby steps four five and six simultaneously the extent you buy couches trucks and vacations slows down your six oh and stop and have babies that kind of stuff you know slows down your six but so what you're going to be okay you're still going to hit all of your goals you're still going to be millionaires if not multi-millionaires when you get to retirement age so i think you're killing it you're doing really good i think you're doing better than you think you are i just want you i just want you to think through this from a critical thinking standpoint what is needed here and so if

we put 10 on his truck and 30 to the side and 20 to the side i think i still got 40 left to throw at the house and if you want to wait till after the baby comes to do that just as an abundance of caution so what but don't be just piling up cash over there over the next five years and call me up and go i got enough in my savings account to pay off my house no you should have already paid off your stinking house okay so you know five you know, five, 10 months, nine months, I don't care, whatever, but let's have a plan to systematically work these steps over time. That's the issue. Heather is with us in Sacramento. Hi, Heather. How are you? Hi, Dave. I am so thankful to be talking to you. How are you? Better than

I deserve. What's up? I just wanted some advice on how to talk to my ex-husband about money. A year ago, I got full custody of our daughter, and I had filed for child support, and he got really abrasive with me, and through just not wanting to have that confrontation, I dropped my request. Why? And through just not wanting to have that confrontation, I dropped my request. It's been a year, and I went back and refiled because back in December. Because he should support his child. Hello.

Right, exactly. Even if he whines about it. We have two kids. My daughter and his daughter live full-time, and he pays child support for his son. And in December, my ex-husband texted me and said he was going to claim our daughter on this year's taxes. He doesn't have that right. I know. I know. And so that just kind of poked the bear. And so I went back and filed, and he texted me over the weekend saying,

hey, I really want to work on communication, yada, yada. I'm like, okay, I can be decent. We can, you know, work on communication. And so. Are you remarried now? No, I'm in a committed relationship with my boyfriend. Okay. All right.

For how long? For how long? We've been together for two years. Okay. I've been separated from my ex-husband for three. Yeah. all right. So we worked together for him to see our daughter. He only sees her about four times a year.

And so first thing Monday morning, he texts me asking, Hey, you know, I really appreciated some compassion for my situation. If I have to pay a set amount each month, I'm not even going to make rent and this and that. Give him a total money makeover book. Yeah. Call the Wambulance. Child support's not 100%. Right.

Not even in California. He can pay his child support, make his rent, and eat. Right. I'll give him compassion. He needs to take care of his dadgum kid. He's a father. Right. Well, and he has five kids living in his house he's had two more kids since we separated and he wants to do a hey let me know what you need as far as money as you go and what i need is you to start paying child support right yeah this guy is a master manipulator, and he's self-centered as crap.

I can tell that already. Yeah, yeah. I got no use for people who don't take care of their kids, man. So what's the best way to approach that conversation with him? I don't think you're going to fix him. No, I'm not. I don't think he's going to be happy. I think I'm just going to be okay with him being unhappy.

Okay. That's how I'm going to approach it. I'm going to be kind and and gentle but firm it's like you know you brought this child into the world the law says and morality says you should take care of this child it really is not rocket science bubba sign up and pay the bill that's how this works and you know i'm sorry that it's not you know he doesn't pay anything now hello so maybe a big good idea if he just kind of got practicing again taking care of his kids Sorry, it's not, you know, he doesn't pay anything now. Hello. So maybe it'd be a good idea if he just kind of got practicing again, taking care of his kids.

It's a good idea. That's why we have this in the law, because it's the proper thing to do. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. If you're stressed out, overwhelmed by money, you don't have to feel that way. No matter how you got here or how much debt you have, you can take control starting today. You just need the right plan. Financial Peace University is that plan. It's a one-year subscription to online access to all the lessons, online access to EveryDollar Plus, which connects the world's best budgeting software to your bank, and you can go to the class physically in person, nine lessons long,

and you get a kit of goodies that you take with you to the class and that you use. This nine-lesson plan will teach you how to make a budget, pay off your debt, spend and save wisely, and start investing for your future. In fact, the average person pays off $5,300 in debt and saves $2,700 in the first 90 days. That's an $8,000 turnaround. But you're also going to learn about things like insurance and real estate and investing to become a millionaire and talking to your kids about money and your spouse about money. Financial Peace University. It's the class you really should have been made to take or we shouldn't let you out of high school, right? Me too. Well, we'll give you the step-by-step plan

to take control, but it's up to you to take the first step get started with financial peace university at davramsey.com or call us at 888-22-PEACE 888-227-3223 chris is in st louis hi chris how are you hi dave doing pretty well how are you better than i deserve what's up? I have a question regarding my retirement 401. My company matches up to 4%, so that's a good thing. But I'm a little concerned now. I'm 52. And just listening to your podcast, I don't have any in after-tax money. I've got currently $350,000 in pre-tax, and I've got like $100,000 in a pension. I would like to retire probably within the next 10 years,

but I'm a little nervous on not having any pre-tax money. And another question is, is the pension money a pre-tax or after-tax? It will be taxed as it comes out. Okay. So it works just like the, in that sense, as far as taxing goes, it works like a traditional 401k, which is where your money is now. And you said you're how old? I will be 52 in July. Okay. And so when are you're how old? I will be 52 in July. Okay. And so when are you talking about retiring?

Well, in my head, I wanted to retire at 59 1⁄2. That way I could get to my money, but now I'm a little concerned with that. In what way? What are you concerned about? Well, it's just, you know, I've got, you know, I'm looking at $448,000 in my retirement, but there's going to be quite a bit of taxes taken out on that. Yeah, but it also will grow a lot by then. That's true.

In 10 years, you should have about $600,000 if you're in good growth stock mutual funds. And that doesn't mention anything that you're putting in during that 10 years as well. So if you wanted to, you know, take what you've got now, leave it all traditional, let that grow to around 600 or so over the next 10 years. And the other money that you now put in, the contributions you make in the next 10 years, put that in a Roth. That would be very cool. And really what you're going to end up doing with it is it's the last thing you're going to take out not the first thing because yeah your traditional has mandatory withdrawal beginning at 70 and a half the Roth does not have that and the more the Roth grows tax-free the more you've got tax-free growth.

So the longer you leave it alone, the larger the account is, and it's all tax-free. So it'll be the last one you tap into. This other one would be the first one you tap into. But I think you're doing great overall. I mean, can we always have more? Sure. What's your home worth? It's around $225,000.

Is it paid for? It is not. Okay. When will it be paid for? Well, I still owe about $180,000 on it. Okay. All right. So in 10 years, you should have roughly a million dollars or less,

between $800,000 and a million, in all of your retirement accounts, and you should have a paid-for home that's worth a half a million dollars or less, between $800 and a million, in all of your retirement accounts, and you should have a paid-for home that's worth a half a million. So you should have a net worth of, say, a million and a half, give or take. Okay. That's where you're headed. If you get the house paid off and you start doing Roth contributions into 401ks and Roths between now and then, and you leave the money that you're there, that's assuming you're investing all of it in good growth stock mutual funds

that have a good track record. And, you know, I think that's a good way to go. I really do. I think it's worth fooling with. So you're doing very well. But I'm with you in that I think from this point forward, your contributions, your new contributions going forward would be into a Roth. I think that's a good plan. Mary's with us in Orlando. Hi, Mary, how are you? I'm fine, thank you, Dave. How are you? Good. How can I help? My husband just

inherited a home. It's mortgage-free. The home we are currently living in is worth about, we have about a $40,000 mortgage. We believe it's worth about $95,000, maybe to $100,000. We don't have much in savings. My question is, do you recommend that we rent the home with the mortgage until we're able to pay it off or sell it and maybe invest the profit? Okay. You inherited a home that's worth 90, that has 40 owed on it, right? No, we inherited a home that's worth about 150,000. The home that we have a mortgage on has got about a a forty thousand dollar mortgage it's worth about ninety five thousand okay and the one that you inherited is paid for yes okay good which one are you going to live in the one we inherited it's larger and okay so you're going to move

into a paid for one hundred fifty thousand dollar house and the question is whether to keep the old house or not right or rent it yes or rent it okay and um and you have debt other than your mortgage um i have a small car loan it's about six thousand left on that and that's it okay do you have an emergency fund yes how much um about 4,500 right now that's about as much as we have in the state. Okay. All right. What's your household income? Roughly $50,000 a year. Okay. Well, if you could pay this thing off and you want it to be a rental for the rest of your life and you pay it off really, really fast, I'm okay with that, meaning you need to pay that off in about three years.

So you need to finish getting your car paid off, get your emergency fund in place, and clear this mortgage in about three years. I think you can do that, but you're going to have to be more intentional with your money than you've ever been in your life to this point to do that. Okay. The good news is you don't have a house payment, and you will be getting rental payments in on the one you're moving out of than putting a renter in. But you guys have got to get on a budget.

You've been really sloppy. All the money that you've made in your life to this point has gone to somebody else. Right? Yeah. And that's got to stop. Otherwise, this is not a good plan. If you guys keep doing that, then this rental house is going to become a burden to you because you're not going to get it paid off. And it's only going to be a long-term blessing if you get it paid off and you make sure you get a renter in there that pays the dadgum bills.

And if they don't, you get them out of there. And you manage that rental fairly but very firmly. And push, push, push, push push push all the way through this if you're going to do all of that i would keep it and rent it but if you're going to you know move uh not hardcore if you're just going to slop around with it i i think the rental is going to take you down i think it's going to be a problem for you but if you'll lean into it be very focused i think it can be a blessing for you. But if you'll lean into it, be very focused, I think it can be a blessing in this situation. If you owed much more on it than that, I would be pushing you to sell it. I mean, if it was a $200,000 rental, you owed $100,000 on it with your income, I'd sell it

because I wouldn't be able to see you paying it off anytime soon. Not quick enough anyway. And that's how I'm looking at this. Hopefully that gives you some insight into the way my brain was working on your answer. Thanks for calling in. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Our scripture of the day, Galatians 6-9, And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. John D. Rockefeller said, I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success

as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature. It does. I love it. Jesse is with us. Jesse's in Augusta, Georgia. Hi, Jesse. How are you?

I'm doing well, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. How can I help? Yes, sir. I just want to get your advice. If you look up my shoes, what would you do? I'm soon to be married in May of this year.

Good. Yes, sir. My fiancee, she's on board with the whole baby steps and your plan, as am I. But she has a horse, and it costs roughly $4,000 a year to keep this horse, and it has about 15 more years to live. And she's talking about getting another horse after this one passes. I'm in love with my fiancee, but I'm not in love with the idea of paying $333 a month for the rest of my life. I was just trying to see if you could, uh, or what advice you could give me as to get her to see how much of a financial burden this is or what would a compromise be?

Okay. Um, how old are you guys? Uh, I'm 28 and she's 28. Cool. What do you all make? We're broke. We have 46 total together. We have $46,000 in debt, and we make annual income of $55,000. Between the two of you? Yes, sir. You both work in 40 hours? Yes, sir.

Okay, cool. And what is your career? I'm a millwright apprentice. Good. I've got two more years on my apprenticeship, but my income is going to go up dramatically. I was going to ask that, yeah. And what does she do?

She works for, I'm sorry, she's a medical biller. Okay. All right. And what is her long-term career plan? She's been kicking around the idea of going back to school, but nothing's set in stone as of yet. Okay. All right. What is the $46,000 in debt that the two of you have? I have $26,000 in student loans, and she has $9,000 on her car,

and the rest of her is a student loan. Okay, good, good. And you said that you're both on the plan. The only separation is this issue on the horse. Did you guys go through Financial Peace University together yet? No, sir. That's on our to-do list. Okay.

Our church, we're doing the premarital counseling. Good. But our church doesn't offer financial peace to the university. Okay. Well, there's other ones in the area that do. You don't have to leave your church. You can just run over and visit the other place enough to go through FPU. I'll give it to you as a wedding gift, and the two of you go through it.

And what I want you to do is not say another word about the horse. The horse comes with a package okay because you're not going to win this battle she's had this horse a long time since she was a little bitty girl she's loved horses yes sir she's emotionally attached and i don't want to do that to make her give it up. Yeah, and so I think you just let it go. Here's what's going to happen. I'm an old guy looking at this. You guys get married, and you start having other goals in your life that start to be more important than the horse,

and then as you're making decisions together, she's going to release the horse. If you force it out, you'll never live it down. But it will not be there, and she will not buy another one at the end. That is my prediction. It won't be there for 10 years even. I bet it's not there seven years. I bet as soon as you guys have two kids, that horse is gone. Yes, sir.

You see what I'm saying? I mean, all that's going to happen is other things, like maybe getting her education. Other things are going to start to be more important than the romantic idea of a horse that she had when she was a little girl and she got this horse. But if you today make this a big deal,

she'll find her way out of this if she becomes a woman and not a little girl. And I think she is. Okay. Because other things are going to become important to her. Other things are going to become important to you along the way too. Yes, sir. And you've got to keep a nice big why in front of you.

Why are we doing this? Why are we managing our money tight? Why are we saving? Why are we building wealth? What do we want to be when we build this wealth? And if you've got that why in front of you, if it doesn't include a horse, all of a sudden the horse is in the way. In her mind, not yours.

And when that day happens, that horse will be gone. And that is not ten years from now. It will happen sooner than that. That's my prediction. And that's nothing prophetic. I'm just an old guy and seen a lot of this stuff. So I think you'll be fine. Hold on a minute. I'll have Miss Kelly pick up. We'll get you guys Hold on a minute. I'll have Ms. Kelly pick up.

We'll get you guys in Financial Peace University, and we'll start the horse eviction now. All you've got to have is a reason. I mean, it's just like selling a car. Why would I sell my car? I love my car. I'm in love with my car. Your fiance is looking at you going, but you've got a stupid $300 car payment. I mean, you're driving me nuts, but you can't go sell your spouse.

You can't come home with your spouse and go, hey, I've been listening to this Dave Ramsey podcast. We're selling your car. That's your great financial plan. You think that's going to work? That crap's not going to fly. That's not going to work. You got to come home and start talking about fun. You got to start talking about how we're going to live in the future.

What would it be like if we didn't have any payments? And when somebody gets really excited about not having any payments, they sell the stuff that they got payments on it, don't they? But they got to get excited about not having any payments. And then it becomes their idea. And you don't have to talk them into it. But if your great plan is to announce the sale of your spouse's vehicle or your fiance's horse, you don't have a great plan.

You're not on track yet. So that's how this deal works. Hold on, Jesse, and we'll help you out, brother. Honored to have you on our team here, and any way we can serve you, we're glad you called in. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jasper, Indiana. Brittany's with us. Hi, Brittany.

How are you? Hi, Dave. Thank you so much for taking my call. I'm great. Sure. How can I help? Okay. My husband and I went through Financial Peace University this past fall, which we realize now we should have done many years ago.

We've been married about 12 years. Cool. And it has done great things for our relationship, for sure. Good. I'm glad. So we are very close to starting on baby steps four, five, and six, probably within less than two months, probably about a month. Yay. Yeah. So we are kind of trying to plan ahead on to how to make that work. I know that I've, I've listened, we've listened to lots of your discussions on this and kind of however it works

best for, for each family is how you've recommended, I guess on how much do you want to put into college fund now versus when you get further along on paying your house off and that kind of thing. So I guess I'm kind of wondering if we follow the 15% of your growth income into our retirement, I don't know how that fits into our current budget. And I don't know if I'm just missing something or I don't know how to make that work. What percentage of your take-home pay is your house payment?

Percentage of our take-home pay? Yeah. How much is your house payment? I think about 25%. Our house payment is about $900. Okay. So your take-home pay is like $4,000 or $5,000 a month? Uh-huh.

It's about $5,200. Okay. All right. 15% of your household income is what? $9,000 a year. Uh-huh. Give or take. Okay?

So this is doable. You can do that. And we're not talking about 600, 700 bucks a month. And you used to pay that out in payments. And then, so you're not going to do huge chunks towards college or huge chunks towards the house extra on five and six right now. But as bonuses come in, inheritances, small inheritance, you know, Grandma Dazzley's there by $5,400 or something,

that goes on the house or in the college fund. You get a bonus or you sell something or some found money shows up, it goes on the college fund or on the house, college fund and the house, college fund and the house until both are done. And when both of those are done, then that's when you hit baby step seven. But today, you're not going to see a big advance on those things. You're going to get in the rhythm of monthly investing in your retirement. And that rhythm over a long period of years, 15 to 20 years, is how you become a millionaire.

And you keep that rhythm going, you'll get there. That's exactly how that works. But you can do it. You can do it. You've been doing this other, and all of that was new when you started. You're doing good. Thanks, Brittany. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books.

We will be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Hey guys, it's Blake Thompson, Senior Executive Producer for The Dave Ramsey Show. This hour's over, but you can find more great content on our YouTube channel. Catch the most watched Dave Rams, debt-free screams, and the very popular everyday millionaire segment. Go to the Dave Ramsey Show YouTube channel and click subscribe.