The Ramsey Show - App - My Fiancée and I Are Struggling To Stay on Budget (Hour 3)

Episode Date: June 14, 2021

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the 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. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. taking the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. It is a free call at 888-825-5225.

Kyle is with us in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hey, Kyle, how are you? Hey, I'm good. How are y'all? Better than we deserve, sir. How can we help? I have a couple of questions. I have a house that my parents built,

and then when they split up, my brother stayed in the house. The house has been put into my name. Mama says just for tax purposes. So I want to sell the house while the market is good, but she don't really want me to. So I want to sell the house while the market is good, which you don't really want me to. So I don't want to do that.

But I'm also wanting to start a business flipping houses. Now is probably not the best time to do that. But I do have a line of credit against the house because the house is paid off. So starting a business is flipping houses is really expensive. So a couple of questions. Should I move out of the house and start my own? I'm 30 years old. Start my own life without that.

And is it okay to use the heel off against the house to start flipping houses since it is such an expensive business to get started in? Okay, there's a lot going on here. Yeah, there is. The first thing is it sounds like morally it's not your house. Did she give it to you or did she just deed it to you for her? She deeded it to me for her. Then deed it back to me.

For now, she said that eventually they did mine. I don't care. Deed it back to her. Deed it back to her. You've got all the liability and all the problems and none of the benefits. Right. Just quit claiming deed it right back to her and let her have her own house, and then you go about your business and go about your life,

which means you don't have any money, right? Right. And you don't have any way to borrow a home equity loan on a house you don't own, right? Correct. Yeah, which you don't need to be leveraging that house, especially if it's – you don't need to be leveraging it, period, but you especially don't want to do it if it's really not yours morally because morally it's her house.

That's what we're saying, right? No. Okay. So we cleaned that part up. Now let's go back to the other part about flipping houses. This is what I did. I used to buy foreclosure real estate in my 20s, and I would borrow the money to do it, and I would flip the house and make a profit,

and I would borrow the money to buy rental properties as well, and in some cases hold them. Sometimes it took a lot longer to flip than i thought um and i've done in excess of 2 000 real estate deals in my life so i've actually done for a living what you're talking about doing so this is not some theory i actually did it. Right. And I went broke doing it because I had borrowed $3 million after it was all said and done, and I had about $4 million worth of real estate, and the bank got sold to another bank, and they called our notes, and we spent the next two and a half years of our life selling everything to try to beat foreclosures. We became a foreclosure after we used to buy foreclosures,

and we lost everything by the time I was 28 and had to start over. That's the Dave Ramsey story. So all of that to say, you can make money flipping houses. In a market as hot as this, it's very difficult because the trick is buying it at a deal in order to sell it at retail. You buy it at below wholesale and you sell it at retail, like you do anything in business, right? And so that's very, very difficult in a white-hot market where anything that comes on the market, no matter how bad, how ugly, or how messed up it is, is bringing premium price in two days. And so it's just really, really hard to find a good deal on a property in a market like this.

So that's thing number one. Thing number two is the only way I would suggest you do this is with cash, which means you've got some savings to do with your career before you move on to buying your first property with cash. And if you flip with cash and in a market that's not white hot, it can be done. It's very difficult. It's a lot more difficult than they tell you at the real estate seminar where they charge you $3,000 to learn how to do it. Yeah, Kyle, I want to know, are you planning to do a lot of the work yourself,

or you consider yourself a carpenter, a handyman, fix-it-upper guy? I am. Since I was 13, I've been in the construction industry, so construction is my passion as well as what I love to do. Are you currently – what is – okay, I'm sorry. I have a hard time understanding. Are you currently employed in the construction industry? Not in the residential industry, no'm sorry. I have a hard time understanding. Are you currently employed in the construction industry? Not in the residential industry, no.

Okay. Well, I've got to tell you, if it's me, I'm going to start a renovation handyman business because you need to come up with the extra cash, yes? Right. So I'd start doing that. Let me tell you why. Not only is it very practical for you to make extra money to be able to save up to buy your first house and cash flow something really small,

you're going to get the experience that you need to do it for yourself when somebody else is paying you to do it. And let me tell you something. In Charlotte, North Carolina, I would say, Dave, that's very similar to Nashville as far as market size, economy. You start doing bathrooms, additions over garages, someone else is paying you. You can make some really, really good money and, again, get great experience, learn who the subs are because all of those subs, those relationships

and those experiences and that money all has to come together. I'd start a small business, grow it slow, cash, just cash, cash, cash, and just put it away, put it away, put it away. And before you know it, two, three years from now, you're doing something you really love. You might be doing it full-time now, and then you put away the money to buy that first house and flip. I think that's the best path forward, Dave, because he enjoys it, number one.

Number two, he gets the experience he needs. Someone else is paying for it. I love it. So, Kyle, the rule is this, and I broke the rule and you will break the rule when you use borrowed money to buy a property you're not as careful and you pay more if you're putting money that you've saved over three years i've been saving like crazy and i've got to go buy this house, and I start thinking about, I wonder what that roof's going to cost. I've got to put a roof on it. You're going to know what that roof's going to cost before you buy the property,

and you're going to know what the value of that property is after rehab. You're not going to guess, and you're not going to get in a hurry, and you're not going to get sucked into a bad deal when you're spending real money, not borrowed money. Borrowed money makes people sloppy they don't pay attention and they do worse deals and that's how people go broke the number of people who use borrowed money to flip houses and are still doing it after a decade is almost zero almost every one of them go broke during that decade. It just doesn't work. So if you want to do flips, you can do it.

It's very hard. It takes a lot of work to find the deals. It won't work hardly at all in a market like this, and you should do it with cash. Now, if you don't follow that, you're going to get to learn the lesson the hard way like I did. This is The Ramsey Show. Folks, listen up. I know some of y'all are putting off getting life insurance because rates went up, restrictions were added due to COVID, but it doesn't change your responsibility to take care of your family.

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They are our vetted SmartVestor Pros. We vetted them. We go through the they're trustworthy they're going to help you and they're going to have the heart of a teacher when they sit down with you text the word invest to 33 789 invest to 33 789 david is in albuquerque hi david welcome to the ramsey show hey dave thanks so much for taking my call sure what's up so my fiance and i we've both been blessed to parents that espouse the same principles that you teach every day um both of our parents grew up as my dad would say uh didn't make enough money to be poor and so when we grew up we grew up very frugal. So now that my fiance and I have graduated college and don't have any student loans or anything like that,

we know what works, but emotionally we sort of have this itch to get some of the things that, some of the finer things that we didn't have growing up. So we know what to do mentally, but our emotions are kind of, you know, bringing us to the Mercedes-Benz website and looking at brand new cars. So what's your advice as far as getting ourselves to motivate each other to stay focused on that same path that our parents were on? How old are you guys? I'm 30 and my fiance is 25. When are you getting married?

September 18th. Congratulations. That's wonderful. Thank you. Well, the Bible says where there is no vision, the people perish. Would you agree with me that spending money that you don't have and getting yourself deeply in debt so that you're broke would be a dumb idea? Absolutely.

Okay. So to have a vision to not do that would be a smart idea. So we need a vision for how we want our lives to look. And then are the actions that we're taking congruent with how we want our life to look and so buying a car you can't afford on payments is not going to give you the life that you desire so what steps what things are do i avoid and what things do i do that gives me the life that I want? That's a vision. Does that make sense?

And so, you know, let me kind of paint it out. In other words, you say, okay, we're 30 and 25. When you're 40, I want to be an everyday baby steps millionaire. I want to have X number of dollars in my 401K. I want to be able to go on some nice trips. I want to be able to pay for dinner at a nice restaurant. And I want to have an emergency fund in place, and I don't want to have any debt. If you lay those things out and say, that's my 10-year goal, then when you get ready to do something, you say,

is this adding to the goal or taking away from the goal? Right. But if you just wander around in our society, you will end up buying crap you can't afford with money you don't have to impress people you don't really like if you don't have a plan. Right, right. And, again, it's more of an emotional thing because, again, both our parents are doing very well, and we see the fruits of that.

But, again, you know, we just feel sort of this urge to get there a little bit quicker than we know it's going to take. Adults devise a plan and follow it. Children do what feels good. Yeah, and you've mentioned the word emotional twice, and so what Dave's trying to help you see is big picture. See, your mom and dad struggled mightily. You said yourself when you grew up, they had nothing.

And you asked about motivation. What Dave just laid out for you, David, I want to make sure you caught what he said, okay? You've got to have a vision for a future, and that'll take care of the motivation. So he was describing your where and your why. Where do you want to end up? Why do you want to end up there? That's what he's laying out for you.

Well, you get clear on that, then the motivation to sacrifice, to withhold is there. How much do you make? Combined, we make about $140,000. Okay. Goodness, yeah. Okay. So if you had an emergency fund and you had no debt and you were buying your home, you had a 15-year fix and you were paying it off and you were saving towards retirement and you wanted to spend $250 to go out to eat one night,

you could do that easily in a really nice, nice restaurant, couldn't you? Yes, sir. Okay. So I'm not prescribing that you have no life. I'm prescribing you have a life of intentionality, not impulse. And so if you act like a child, you're going to act like most people and operate on impulse. But Sharon and I do all kinds of really nice things, david and it's not because i make a lot of

money although i do it's because i make a lot of money and every one of those dollars has a freaking assignment sometimes the assignment is generosity sometimes the assignment is dave wants to have some fun or sharon wants to have some fun. Sometimes the assignment is future investing. But it's all just on a plan, and you can have a wonderful life, meanwhile building a wonderful life. Yeah, but again, Dave, the key word you just said there was plan. You've got a plan that informs the name on every dollar. And people want to know, oh, I can't get motivated, I can't get motivated.

Well, let me tell you something. You't get motivated. I can't get motivated. Well, let me tell you something. You're not motivated because you don't have a very clear goal, a clear direction. Motive, motive, motive is the root word there. You've got to really lock in on that. So what's that desired future? When you both get really clear on that, then we can go, oh, okay, I know I really want a new Mercedes, but that's not going to get me where I want to go. And so you're motivated to sacrifice. You're motivated to be disciplined. When I get there, I'll buy a new mercedes but that's not going to get me where i want to go and so you're motivated

to sacrifice you're motivated to be when i get there i'll buy a new mercedes yes but that's right there is the key point yeah i mean but but right now i don't need to even be on the website because it just disturbs my brain well that's another good point dave if i stare at you know websites you don't need to go to bars right but i don't need to be looking at five million dollar homes all day long because if i do i'll start to develop an appetite for that but i can't do it not not today so that next book you might there you go you know but that's a really good point so hey rachel's new book know yourself know your money talks about talks about your family that you grew up in

and how it affects these decisions, and you kind of mentioned that a little bit. I'm going to send you a copy of that, and we have a fabulous Know Yourself money assessment for couples. And you guys, I'm going to give you one of those as well. I'm going to sign you up for that. And you guys take that as part of your pre-marriage counseling. It will print out this fabulous thing showing everything your fiance thinks about money how the way they're going at this and the way you're going at it and i think it'll add a lot of value to this discussion for you because i think

what's happening is is that um about the time one of you uh is being wise and mature the other one's not and then you swap places and uh you to both get on the plan and just go, look, wisdom and maturity does not mean no fun. It means higher quality fun. That's a really good point. I'm wondering, Dave, if this sweet young couple, they watch their parents struggle and sacrifice, and now they're good.

But he said something in the conversation. He said, we want to get there faster. I wonder if there's a little bit of fear that, oh, I don't want to live it out as long as my mom and dad. We want to get there. We want to do better than mom and dad. I wonder if that's driving some of this. Do you see that with young couples? I'll help you with this.

You blink, you're there. Isn't that the truth? You blink, you're there. It's not. You're going to have plenty. And all along, at different stages with different incomes and different net worths and different levels of investing and different levels of generosity, Sharon and I have had the ability to enjoy money all along. But if you're making $50,000, he's making $140,000, you don't go buy a $12 million house. And so there's no sense in being on the website. There's no sense watching the TV shows a $12 million house. Uh-uh. You know?

And so there's no sense in being on the website. There's no sense watching the TV shows about $12 million houses. It's true. It doesn't do any good. No. It doesn't do any good. It's counterproductive to what your goal is. Now, you may be in a place someday that you have a house like that, but not right now.

Yeah. This is The Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Brad and Jamie are with us. Hey, guys, how are you? Doing great. How are you, Dave? Better than we deserve. Welcome. Good to have you guys. How much debt have you guys paid off? $196,302 in 27 months. Love it. Good for you. Where do you guys live?

Memphis, north of Memphis. Cool. Okay. uh your range of income during that 27 months we started at 137 ended at 166 good what do y'all do for a living we both work in the va okay cool well it's great to have you guys what kind of debt was the 196 000 uh well we were kind of normal dave we We had a bit of everything. We had lawnmowers for my landscaping business. We had TSP loan. We had credit cards, car, RV, all of it. Wow.

Yes. $200,000 worth of normal. Yes. Normal sucks. Unfortunately. Yeah. Wow. So what in the world happened that lit you guys up?

I mean, you must have sold a bunch of stuff to do that in 27 months. Yes and no. What got us started, we actually heard about you probably 15 years ago. And we actually got debt-free while we were in the Air Force. And we never got past Baby Step 2. We did that. My behavior didn't change. I wanted to live and enjoy the money right now.

I didn't want to have to be on a budget. $200,000 in debt later. I used the budget the wrong way. Jamie gave me the budget many years ago, and I started using it to say, okay, this is how much is left at the end of the month so I can afford that payment. And when it got down to where it was less than a hundred or $200, I was like, okay, we can't afford that next thing. And it got to where we were making too much money to be struggling like that. We grew up, both of us grew up where we didn't have much and God blessed us with such a large income, and we were squandering it. We were not being good stewards.

And it started to really hit me hard that God had blessed us with all this income, and we weren't living right. And we had gone to get some tires for our motorcycle. On that was also a motorcycle. And my son needed a pair of shoes. And when we were going down there, we said, we have too much debt. We're not going to use this credit card. We're going down here and doing this in cash. And that was kind of the start of the journey.

And when I couldn't afford in cash to buy him shoes, I snapped. I cracked. This is insane. I make this much money, and I can't buy my son shoes. And we got back from that trip, and about a week later my co-worker actually he

brought you up on youtube i was like oh i know who that is and he started listening to it and i just got intense like i went crazy i started listening to every single bit of every ramsey solution every other personality and and it got me fired up. Uh-oh, Jamie. I was in trouble. What did he do? He went into overdrive, completely gazelle intense. Did he bring you with him? He did.

I tried. Struggling sometimes. I just wanted to see the attitude change. I wanted to see the behavior change. And it took a while for me to warm up because I had seen him. Yeah, we can afford this. Yes, work on it. We can do this.

And I was hesitant. I'm like, I'll support him. But I was like, I want to see it change. I want the behavior change. And I knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel, but it was still so dark, so dark, so desperate. What all did you guys sell? We tried to sell my Subaru and we did. We were able to

downgrade my car. I now have a 2010 Honda Civic. It's not bad. CRV. Not bad. It gets me from point A to point B. I absolutely love my little roller skate, as we call it. That was the biggest thing. Did you sell any of his toys, like his

motorcycle? No. No? Did you sell the of his toys like his motorcycle no no did you sell the camper we tried we tried twice to sell the camper and it stayed on the lot for 90 days they didn't understand why i wouldn't sell and i just kind of chucked it up as you know what god wants me to just work hard and and take care of this thing but it was insane though once we were doing it God's way, and I was living on the budget and sticking with it, and godliness with contentment is great gain, and I learned a whole new meaning of that verse,

and that's become like that state in my head this whole time. It's like money just starts showing up everywhere. It took five years for my medical retirement to show up for the Air Force. And it was three years prior to this, or three and a half years. And during this, shortly after we got this start, all of a sudden that showed up. I'll be. Lump sum of money.

Come in. I mean, I think there was like $13,000. And just things like that just kept happening. Of course, COVID, we felt bad because it didn't hurt us. We ended up making all kinds of extra money. We got extra incentive pay because of that. I got a job because of it. She works with me now in IT.

Oh, yeah. I was curious. How did you go from 137 to 166? That's a good jump. That was mostly me. I was working at one position, and I've always wanted to be in IT. I was in IT for the military,

and COVID happened and there was special incentives, but it had to be temporary. So I left a permanent position for a temporary position in IT. And before the temporary position became non-existent, there was a permanent that opened up, and I applied. Wow. I got accepted. Leap of faith. God bless us. That's great. That's so fun, you guys.

How does it feel now that you're done? Unreal. Was it worth it? Oh, yeah. Definitely. If there was some way that I could just drag somebody kicking a screen, but I know I can't. You've been trying to do that for 35 years now. But I tell everybody. I mean, trying to do that for 35 years now. I tell everybody.

You have no idea how much that is. I didn't realize how much of a noose around my neck, around our necks. The debt is horrible. The minute that we paid off the last debt, it was like that bondage just gone. What was the very first

one you paid off, the little one? Actually, it was one of my mowers. It was a walk-behind 36-inch full hydrostatic nice mower that I got from my landscaping company. I paid that one and the next one off almost within the first two months when our taxes came in. Okay. All right. So, boom, boom. And then that got you going.

Yes. Yes. Yeah. See a little progress, it helps. It got hard, though. It got real hard. $196,000? I guess so.

Well, we actually, we kind of topped off a lot higher than that because overtime. I, at one point, did 100 hours of overtime within a two-week period. Whoa. And that about killed me. I bet. I said, God, let me see if I can do it. And there was people praying for me, and it was only by God's grace that I had the strength because I was at work 4 o'clock in the morning, left work at 8.30 at night, home by 9.30,

back up again at 3 o'clock in the morning to get back to work again. What was the direct – I want people to hear this because they just heard you describe how hard it was. What was the direct benefit coming out of that two-week period? More than quadrupled my paycheck. Yeah. I mean, I was blessed with the fact that we just had blanket overtime because of COVID, because I was doing a big project upgrading our comm closets. So let me tell you, there was a lot of comm closets in that hospital that have tears on

the floor because that's the reason why I wanted to come here and do this, because I'm not very an open person. I don't like to be out in public a lot, but somebody else needed to hear this. Because there were so many death-free screams that sent me into tears. I heard their numbers close to mine. I said, I can do this. And it was halfway through, and it was just painful, so painful, so tiring. So proud of you guys.

That's good stuff right there. So proud of you. So well done. Excellent, excellent job. You brought the kiddos. What are their names and ages? This is Michaela. This is Elisha.

All right. It's good to have all of you. We've got a copy of the Legacy Journey for you. That is definitely the next step in your process. You've changed your life. Now you change your legacy. Well done. Very well done.

And a copy of the Total Money Makeover for you to give away and get somebody else going on this. So good stuff. All right. Brad and Jamie, Michaela and Elisha, $196,000 paid off in 27 months, two and a half years, making $137,000 to $166,000. Did it, man. Game on, overtime, whatever it took.

Knocked it out. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream three two one we're debt-free that's how it's done man i love it very well done very well done this Very well done. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time. Our scripture of the day, Psalms 145, 16 and 17. You open your hand. You satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in his works. My friend, Drewett Cathy, said,

Nearly every moment of every day, we have the opportunity to give something to someone else. Our time, our love, and our resources. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. It means even if you mismeasure or you pick the wrong color, they'll remake your blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run all the time, you'll save even more. This is a great American company.

If you need window blinds, they're the number one seller on the Internet. Check these guys out. I've done business with them. They're incredible. Blinds.com. Today's question comes from Steve in Massachusetts. I'd love to move into a management position, and I've been working with my superiors to gain additional training and certification to be the best candidate for this position.

I'm cautiously optimistic about this opportunity, but they have a history of working with employees to move up the ladder but never actually hiring them for the position. I know nothing is guaranteed, but how do I navigate a conversation where I bring this subject up? I don't want to jeopardize any progress I have made, but I also want to address this concern. You know, Steve, I don't like you bringing this up. I don't know where you're getting your facts. I don't know if you've been able to do your own research to see, well, they'll talk a good game, but they never actually move anybody up. And regardless of the scenario about how you've come to this conclusion,

talking to them about being concerned that they're not going to promote you is not going to actually get you the opportunity to get promoted. You have one way to do this, and that is do all the things that you're doing. You're getting the additional training, the additional certification. You're talking to leadership about it. The only thing I would add to this is get it in writing and say, hey, if I do these things, will I be in a place where I've got the best chance to win the position? If they say yes, you do that.

If they keep kicking the can down the road, you know that your suspicions or that the rumors are in fact true, and you've now hit a lid at this organization, and then you begin to look for something else to move on to. But to have a conversation about concerns about something that may or may not happen, it's not going to help you. You go for it, and if you don't get happen, it's not going to help you. You go for it. If you don't get the shot, then you decide to move on. Yeah, there's not really a way to say to your leader, hey, I've heard you don't have integrity, and have that help you with promotion. Yeah.

That's probably not going to work out. No, no. Robert is in Mozambique. Hey, Robert, how are you? Hey, Dave, thanks for taking my call. Sure, what's up? So I work for a company and all of our jobs are outside of the U.S. Because we spend all of our time outside the U.S., all of our income is tax free. So I qualify for the thirty three thirty tax exempt where I don't have to pay any federal taxes for the year. So last year on paper,

I made about $12,000. In actuality, I took home about $90,000. But I want to start investing in the 401 thrift that my company offers. The $19,500 cap, will I find any penalties or anything if I invest more than what I actually claim on paper? And should I choose the Roth or traditional because of the tax situation? You can invest up to your earned income into a Roth or into a traditional or into the 401k. But if you're showing an earned income on a U.S. tax return of $12,000, that is your cap. Gotcha. Now, you can't put more into a 401K than you got paid. Okay.

So the tax paper shows that I made the $90,000, but because of the exemption for working out of the U.S., the actual adjusted... Well, it may be that they count that earned income. You need to check with a tax advisor in the U.S. then to find out. You could check with one of our endorsed local providers that does taxes. But if they're counting that as earned income income even though it's not taxable income it could be earned income and not taxable income but uh for instance you cannot give me an example if you if you live on disability income uh the irs for tax for purposes of putting money into a retirement account that does not count as earned income. If you have investment income that you

live on, that is not earned income for purposes of doing an IRA. And so if you've got a million dollars in mutual funds and you pull $100,000 off the investment every year, but you don't do any, you don't have any income that you earn from a job or anything else, then you cannot do a retirement plan on investment income. It has to be on earned income. So it may be the 3330 income is considered earned income, and then you can max out. And if that's the case, I certainly would be.

Sorry, I don't know the answer to that. I'm not a tax guy. But check with one of our endorsed local providers at RamseySolutions.com, and they'll help you walk through that. Sarah is in New York City. Hi, Sarah. Welcome to the RamseySolutions.com, and they'll help you walk through that. Sarah is in New York City. Hi, Sarah. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi.

Thank you so much for taking my call. I'm super excited to be on the show today. Sure. So, yeah, I am a recent graduate of a master's program. I'm graduating with about $58,000 in student loan debt. Despite the debt, you know, luckily I was able to increase my income through like a new job like substantially. However, with this increased income, I just feel like there's a lot of just upcoming things I'm thinking about. For example, I'm getting married.

I want to buy a car. I need to buy a house, pay back my student loan debt. And I'm just having a hard time really trying to figure out how to balance the new income I'll be making with these. Cool. What will you be making? Financial. So my base will be about $165,000 and I'll be getting stock and things like that. So my total will be $240. Good for you. Way to go. Excellent. When are you getting married? Right now it's set for June 4th, so next summer. A year.

Okay. What does he make? He's in the real estate, so it fluctuates. Last year he made $160, and now it fluctuates. Cool. Well, we teach a process called the baby steps, and it's the order of attack that is the shortest distance between where you are and wealth. Okay? And we've done it for 30 years, and millions and millions of people have used it to become millionaires.

So it really does work. It's not magic. It's hard work. But the first thing you do is save $1,000. That's kind of a no-brainer in your situation. And the second thing is you work to become debt-free as fast as possible. So making $240,000, how fast are we going to pay off $58,000 in debt? Really, really freaking fast.

Before you talk about buying a house. And you're going to do that in just a few months. I mean, because you're used to living on nothing. That's true. Now, do you have a car? No, I don't. not at all yeah so like the only debt i have is from the student loan oh but you're okay you're in new york city i said so uh yeah exactly where are you leaving the city i'm thinking of moving elsewhere to sort of cut down on the rent i've been paying um as a student but it's still pretty much up in the air. But your career is there.

Yeah, my career is here, but I can move to Jersey or, like, somewhere else. I got you. I would do that, Dave. If you can move to Jersey and save on rent and you're going to ride. But I would use public transportation. Absolutely. That's what you've been doing all these years, and that's not a problem there. I mean, you just catch the subway to get around, don't you?

Yep, exactly. Perfect. If you're in Jersey, you can ride the train in or wherever. I mean, and it's perfectly fine. I would do that for a short period of time, and let's get the debt cleaned up and get you an emergency fund of three to six months saved, and then I would save up and buy a car, and then I'd start saving towards a house. And somewhere in there, we've got to stop and put enough money in the bank to pay for the wedding.

Yeah, I think the biggest issue is, like, for example, like, my family. Like, I don't come to the family with a lot of money, so when it comes to the wedding, it'll pretty much be me and my fiancé covering the whole cost. Yeah, so how much are you going to spend on the wedding? As of right now, like, I want to stay under $15,000, and I think that's a comfortable number, but it's still something I would be Okay, let's pretend for a second. Let's pretend for a second.

Yeah. Let's pretend you make $240,000, and you need $15,000 for a car and $15,000 for a wedding and $60,000 to pay off student loan debt. That's $120,000. Mm-hmm. You should do this in six months of your income. Yeah. You have to live out of that.

But the point is, by next June, you should have accomplished all of those goals. It would be very reasonable to have $120,000 out of $240,000 in one year, wouldn't it? Yeah. So that's where you've got to go. That's the way to go. That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show, or the Ramsey Show, in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace,

and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. This is James Childs, producer of The Ramsey Show. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Subscribe or follow today wherever you listen to podcasts. Ramsey Show. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Subscribe or follow today wherever you listen to podcasts.