The Ramsey Show - App - My Husband Bought a $72K Car We Can’t Afford (Hour 2)

Episode Date: April 10, 2023

Dave Ramsey & George Kamel answer your questions and discuss: "My Husband bought a $72k car we can't afford", Negotiating medical bills in collections, "Should we pay our student loans?" Getting a construction loan. 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/3cEP4n6 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

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods of Moving and Storage Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships george camel ramsey personality and my co-host today is my co-host today the phone number is 888-825-5225 we have announced today that george camel now has his own youtube channel check him out at george camel with a k george c k-a-m-M-E-L, not C. And you can find him at YouTube, and the snark will be delivered.

The taking down of bad financial products and mythology will be delivered. And George is excellent at that, and we're excited that this is a new offering from the Ramsey Networks there on YouTube. George is also the co-host of the Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruz, which is wildly popular. Congratulations, George. Thank you. Big day. It's like, you know, we deliver the baby, and here it is,

and you don't want anyone to call your baby ugly. This is true, but they will. Just be ready. Oh, they are. It's called YouTube comments. We love it. Hey, we're going to start this hour with Ashley in Jacksonville, Florida. Hi, Ashley.

How are you? Hi, I'm good. How are you? Hi, I'm good. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I wanted to talk through an issue. My husband, he recently purchased, I guess it's been about a year, he purchased a $72,000 car.

And we are not in a financial place to have been able to afford that car. He's currently the only one working. And as of now, I believe we still owe $62,000 on the car. And obviously that's not including interest. Um, so our finances kind of look at the moment he's paying $1,200 a month for the car, um, not including insurance. I know. Um, and then for rent, we pay about 1500. So there's been like a very big struggle obviously between trying to keep up with that and then saving and trying to just kind of invest in our future. So obviously a horrible, horrible decision, but I'm hoping there's a way that we can kind of get back from this.

Did he do this without telling you? We actually just got married last year and I believe it's kind of a terrible story. I'm not even going to say it's a funny story. It's not. He had a car that he just completely paid off. So he had that car, perfectly good condition. And then he decided he wanted to get an SUV, which he purchased for about $32,000, I think. And then the dealership emailed him saying, hey, we have a great deal for you. You can bring that new car and trade it in and upgrade to this electric car that he's been wanting. So he did not, he briefly mentioned that to me. And from what he told me, it sounded like it was kind of going to be an equal trade. Maybe he'd be paying a little bit more. That's what it sounded like to

me. So he went, did that, took care of it. And then it wasn't until a few months ago that I fully understand like the gravity of what had actually happened. But all of that occurred before you were married um it was like during during the time like before i mean he didn't he did not do this while you were at the altar so there is no during yeah it was before or after you were married you were legally married and then he did this okay yeah and then of course when i questioned him about like what was possibly going through his mind he honestly didn't really have an explanation and just said it was an extremely stupid decision that he just couldn't um take back and now we found something we agree on okay

yeah why can't he just go sell this car today? What do you mean you can't take it back? So the reason why he's not able to sell it is because the highest amount he's even getting for this car now is $40,000. And we still owe like $65,000 or $63,000 on the car. Who said? He's talked to a few dealerships about this. Yeah, he's not good at this. Yeah. We're talking private party here of course if you go to a dealership they're going to give you my car who made who's the maker

yeah it's a an electric kia seventy two thousand dollars for a kia yeah i know i know not not okay he paid seventy two thousand for it when um this was in april of 2022 and you're telling me one year and it dropped in half 32 000 drop no no i'm not buying it he's justifying why he should keep this car while i talk okay because i'm just i think i'm calling bs this is a guy i don't want to sell the car. And he's trying to make this deal out worse than this. But let's just pretend it's 50 and not 40, which it could be. Okay. Alright, we've still got a $12,000 hole, right? And what does he make?

About 90. Okay. And do you have any other debt? No major debts, just a couple smaller debts on credit cards under $2,000. Okay. That's your only debt other than your home. Do you own a home? No, we don't. We're renting.

Good. Okay. So he makes $90,000. He owes $65,000 on a car. $62,000. $62,000 on a car. And let's pretend you could sell it makes $90,000, he owes $65,000 on a car, $62,000 on a car. And let's pretend you could sell it for $50,000, okay? And it's a Kia what? EV6.

A what? EV6. EV6, okay. They're running from as low as $46,000, but it quickly goes up to 50 plus so you could definitely sell this thing for 50 plus so i think your husband called the same dealer that screwed him the first time and asked them what did they give him for it and they thought oh we're gonna get this guy again third time we're gonna screw this guy over yeah so 40 is below wholesale so if you put the thing on the market on trader.com or such something like that and sold it yourself uh the market value private sale is closer is in the 50s like i suspected okay because the numbers

you were giving us were just unbelievable that the car even a kia would lose that much in one year it's just unbelievable so all right so he's not good at this or he doesn't want to sell it, one of the two or both. So we're going to sell it for $50 and we're going to borrow $12 to cover the difference from your local bank or your credit union. And you probably need to borrow about, you don't have, do you have any money? Not much saved up, no. What's not much? Like $4,000 to $5,000.

Good. Okay. So I would borrow $10,000 and buy a $5,000 car and borrow $10,000 and be $10,000 in debt and we'll call that debt stupid tax. Yeah. Which is what I have to pay when I do something stupid. Okay. And you guys have a rule from this point forward in your marriage.

We do not make financial decisions without both of us being involved and being in agreement. Oh, yeah. I made that very, very clear. No, you didn't. Because he did this after you were married. I know. Well, now I made it very clear. Ashley, you didn't, because he did this after you were married. I know. Well, now I made it very, very clear. Ashley, from today forward, you are involved with the money in this marriage that you were a part of.

There's no more. I didn't know. And he is, too. And he is, too. So both of you have a vote, and both of you decide. But what I would do is I would borrow $10,000. I would buy a $5,000 car for cash, and I would sell this car. And then I would pay off the $10,000. I would buy a $5,000 car for cash and I would sell this car. And then I would pay off the $10,000 with your 90 income and no payments.

Have no payments, but the $10,000 and your couple of little credit cards that you need to cut up today. And we're going to help you because you guys are getting started on a rough foot here, on a sore foot from kicking each other. And we're going to put you into Financial Peace University. I'll pay for it if you will both promise to go when you talk to Austin, you're on hold with him from kicking each other. And we're going to put you into Financial Peace University. I'll pay for it if you will both promise to go when you talk to Austin. You're on hold with him right now. Hey, you guys. Health insurance costs are only moving one way,

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And CHM has also helped them stay true to their values and avoid miles of red tape. And CHM support goes far beyond meeting financial needs. They'll also help meet spiritual needs. Members become part of a family who will pray with them and for them when they experience a medical event. So listen, y'all, there's no better way to take care of health care costs. CHM programs start as low as $98 a month. So learn more today and join at chministries.org slash budget. That's chministries.org slash budget. Hey, listen up, everybody.

Our Smart Conference weekend is here in Nashville. It's happening this weekend. Tickets have been going fast, and there's just a couple, like 15 or 20 left, and you can get yours today. Join me and all the Ramsey personalities, Rachel Cruz, Dr. John Deloney, Ken Coleman, George Camel, and Jade Warshaw, April 14th and 15th, Friday and Saturday, Friday evening and all day Saturday, to help us make Ramsey history with this first-ever event in the brand-new Ramsey Event Center.

You're going to leave energized, equipped, and smarter in every area of your life, like money, career, relationships, mental health, all of that. And since it's the first time in the new event center, you're going to get the commemorative badge with your ticket. Plus, you'll have a chance to meet us all, the Ramsey personalities. And on top of that, I hear there might even be some music. This is Nashville, after all. Dave's going to pull the guitar out, finally.

No. America's been waiting. No, I'm in talk radio for a reason. I play the radio. But you've got talented friends. That's all I'm saying. I have lots of talented friends, and I know my lane. He knows a guy. I play the radio. You've got talented friends. I have lots of talented friends, and I know my lane. He knows the guy.

Tickets start at only $119. Literally, I think there's 17 or 18 tickets left. Thanks for coming, everybody. We're excited for this. Also, since it is basically a sellout, let's talk about this. This is important. We're going to do a live stream, George.

A free live stream for those of you that can't be there in person. We're going to be broadcasting all of the money talks from the morning, including Dave Ramsey, Rachel Cruz, myself. You're going to hear from all three of us for free. That's incredible. Saturday morning, the first three talks at the day long. You're going to miss the Friday night event, but we're going to stream the friday night event but you can we're going to stream the morning oh and we're charging a lot it's i mean it's a full two days i mean we're charging a lot

for this live stream in the morning oh completely that one would be free it's got zeros on the end 0.0000 the zero yeah lots of zeros it's not gonna we're gonna try it's free live stream the first three talks in the morning from smart Conference from the brand new Ramsey Events Center. You can tune in. Get a feel for everything that's going on and I hope you get a little FOMO and you won't want to miss the next one that way. Right.

And but hey, sign up for free because we mentioned it's free. George's talk. Rachel's talk. My talk on this coming Saturday morning live. That's why they call it a live stream be the only time it's available by the way uh ramsey solutions.com slash live and you can sign up for free for the free live stream margaret's in huntsville hey margaret welcome to the ramsey show. Thanks for having me.

How are you today? Better than we deserve. What's up? So I'm calling because I am new to health insurance, as in newer to being on my own plan. I had to have some unexpected expenses come up in the past few months. And in October, I had a CT scan. And then in December, I ended up having to have a surgery to remove what they found from that CT scan. Wow. And my question for you today is, is there, and by the way, I'm 100% healthy now.

I'm very blessed and fortunate. Good. My question for you is, is that I just got off the phone with my healthcare provider and was finding out that I owe about $4,500 from the CT scan and the surgery combined. And that's after the 80-20 split. And I thought the 80-20 split would be applied afterwards because with my surgery, I hit the deductible for the year. So my question to you guys is, how do you recommend I find a way to pay for this, like by negotiating maybe to get a lower rate? I believe I've heard before maybe you can offer to pay in cash and negotiate, but I just didn't know what to do, so I thought I would call you guys.

So this was a $50,000 surgery? Yes, sir. It was $51,000 surgery? Yes, sir. It was $51,000. Okay. Wow. Well, I'm glad you're okay. That's a scary thing to go through. Thank you.

And it sounds like you've got reasonably good insurance in place with a deductible plus an 80-20. So you had already met the deductible before this happens with other things. No, sir. So my plan starts on October 1st. So all of this stuff started happening. So by, so from what I understand by the time, um, the plan was contracted, it was the difference of $ of six thousand dollars and then they had to apply the thirty eight hundred dollar deductible that i had not met yet and then when they subtracted the six thousand from the thirty eight hundred they got what the plan paid so then they did twenty percent of that and added it to the deductible I had not paid yet. And that's how I got to $4,300.

And then that additional money to get to the 45 was the cost of the CT scan that I had before. So your total bills right now that you have to pay is $4,500. Yes. And then I already had some stuff this year, and it was a $500 deductible to be secondary. So in total from the past few months, $5,075.57. But you've already paid that, or you still have $5,000 outstanding? I paid $200 of it earlier today, so we're just right under the $5,000 mark, I guess. Gotcha. What do you make?

But the $4,500, or the $4,300 rather is what I'm more concerned about. I'm mark, I guess. Gotcha. What do you make? But the $4,500, or the $4,300, rather, is what I'm more concerned about. I'm sorry, what did you say? What do you make? I make a little over $60,000. Good. And I have a $10,000 emergency fund. How much? A $10,000 emergency fund.

Okay. And I follow you religiously as much as i can so i'm very blessed i have enough cash to be able to pay this in full but i just wanted to find a way maybe i could negotiate it a little bit lower and i just really don't know how i would just call them and say um i'm how old are you i'm about to be 28 okay are you single I'm about to be 28. Okay. Are you single? I'm recently married. Okay.

I'm a 28-year-old newlywed. I've never been in this situation before, and this is you calling and talking to them, okay? And this is all really scary for me. If I pay you cash, how much of a discount can you give me if I pay it right now? Whatever they say, ask them to send an email verifying that amount and then send them the money that day and put it behind you. If it's full prices, that's fine. It doesn't matter if you have it even on your checking account.

It's not adversarial. Bring a check to the billing department, whatever you want to do. Yeah, whatever you need to do. Okay. And then the other thing was someone told me to make sure it didn't mess up the credit bureau. It won't. Is that a thing? No, not if they decide to accept less because they haven't turned it over to a collections yet.

If you settle it, if you call them up and say i owe you you know a particular vendor okay let's say you own two thousand dollars i owe you two thousand dollars what will you accept and they say fifteen hundred you say okay thank you so much i'll send it to you today but i need an email verifying that that that is paid in full and then i'll send it to you today and then they can have the billing send that right out to you and then you can pay it right then and there will be no collections. There will be no dings on your credit because there's no reason for them to turn it into credit. They just negotiated the bill.

It's a negotiated price. It's like if you go into the dress store and the dress is on sale for $200 and you say, would you take less? And they say, yes, $150. They don't turn that in on your credit. Yes, sir. It's the same thing. Have you asked for an itemized bill um yes and i have it okay and the amount matched up but i just want you to verify because sometimes

they'll throw things in there when you ask for an itemized bill they go oh maybe we should take off take off that advil we charge 75 for and so you can get a discount that way just by getting them to own up and go, let's actually show them what we charged. But if you got the itemized bill and it's $4,500, I think the cash offer is the way to go. Yeah. And I'm not expecting a big discount, by the way, in this situation.

What would you think it could be? I have no idea. But I mean, if they knock off 10% or 20%, I think you had a good day. Yes, sir. I would agree. And either way, just pay it. Can I ask one more question? Sure. Yes, I'll pay it.

So my husband's insurance, we're trying to figure out if we should just stay separate or just pay the extra to go on his. The way his plan is is that if the spouse has an insured portion from their work, they'd have to add $100 a month. Yeah, I mean, if you're getting yours for free, no, I wouldn't. Unless it's far superior coverage, I'd have to look at the coverage, but I doubt it. If they're similar coverages, I wouldn't pay extra to be on his plan when you got yours for free. No benefit there george camel ramsey personality is my co-host today open phones this hour 888-825-5225 in the lobby of ramsey solutions on the debt-free stage, Jason and Jody are with us.

Hey, guys, how are you? Good. How are you, Dave? Better than we deserve. Where do you guys live? Jacksonville, Florida. Oh, welcome to Nashville. Good to have you.

All right, and how much debt have you guys paid off? A total of $365,000. Wow. How long did this take take about seven years and 10 months all right and your range of income during that seven years and 10 months so we started out at about 80 a little under 80 and we're now about 175 excellent what do you guys do for a living so i am a wireless communications engineer and i do adoptions from foster care excellent wow very cool okay 365 000 was what kind of debt uh so um 86 000 was consumer and the rest of it was uh actually the house you paid off your house looking at weird people way to go you guys what's

this house worth uh so right now it it's close to about $400. Way to go. Very cool. And how much do you guys have in your retirement accounts? Probably about $160 between the two of us. Way to go. You're heading towards millionaire. Halfway there.

Way to go. Congratulations. How's it feel to have your house paid off? Wonderful. It's amazing. It's just there's so much you can do now. We can do now without a payment. Amen.

Amen. So what started you on this journey seven years and 10 months ago? It actually started earlier than that. My sister, she's seven years older than me. And I had just graduated college and was unemployed looking for a job. And I was babysitting her twin boys, my nephews, and she had your book on her coffee table, wasn't using it. So I read it and I thought, well, I mean, I don't have any money coming in. So I of course made every excuse and put it back down. And then

we had our first son and both of us were kind of like, we need to do something to change this. And a couple of my friends at work were also doing, or were doing Financial Peace University at their church. And so that's how we got connected. Ah, okay. So you went to Financial Peace? We didn't actually go through. I just listened to your podcast all the way through. Still listen to it. When we were in here, was the um baker street was playing and my son is that why we're here wow this is the connection this is why we listen to this every day he's been hearing that since before he was born i like it very cool all right so jason how'd she get you fired up about this you know i kind of

just followed along and i i saw things you know snowballing and i said this is this is really working i i think i'll jump on board too yeah engineer mindset you're like all right this is a process it works i'm on board yes i have to i have to see facts yeah absolutely i don't blame you me too well done you guys well done that's a long slog but you got the house and everything done seven years That's about the average people paying off their house in about seven years. Did you pre-decide you were going to pay off the house at the end of the consumer debt? What made you just keep going? We did. I mean, we just didn't like being in debt.

And once you saw those numbers go down, it's like, we can do the rest of it. No problem. Yeah. We reach over and knock it out. Yeah. That's fun. Because you're definitely not normal anymore. I love it. So when someone says, how'd you get out of debt? How'd you pay off your house at this young age? What do you tell them? Well, you tell them what everybody says, that you have to be on the same page.

You have to support everybody. But what really got it going for us was that when I got that new job we continued to live off of the original salaries that we were making but that extra money all went to debt

and I tell you it really got that snowball going really fast for us yeah live on less than you make avoid lifestyle creep that's what they call it

you get a raise and you just spend it you don't know where it went but you guys went no we're going to keep living on less so we have more margin to pay off this debt. That's it. We also, I had, my grandparents lived in central Florida for 60 years in the same house

without any central air conditioning. Whoa. And I always reminded myself and Jason when we were going through things and we're trying to figure out if we should buy this or not it was always thinking deciphering want versus need and so if my grandparents at 80 years old can stay in a house with no central air and eating in Florida in Florida yeah um we can we can live without the air conditioning in our car right now wow and then you get there and now you can do anything you want to do yep so what's your first big thing to do now that you don't know a stinking dime in the world to anybody well we did a disney trip with one of our close friends and her girls um and that was exciting um inexpensive yes it is disney's proud of their services. And then being here, we took our first flight as a family of five, which was a big deal.

Yeah, it is. Yeah, so probably a good little southwest jump from Jacksonville to Nashville. You got it. Yeah, done that one myself a time or two. Excellent. They went from Disneyland to Ramsey Solutions. Which one's better? I just don't know.

I know which one's cheapest. Kids can't decide. Yeah. This one's cheapest. Kids can't decide. Yeah. This one's free. We're not going to charge you for the ride. I'm just saying. And the cookies are free. So it's quite the opposite.

It's a Disney inverse relationship. Oh, my gosh. Way to go, you guys. So proud of you. Congratulations. Who was cheering you on from the outside? So we had friends. My mom, his parents, my sister sister my really good friend robin staley

and her late husband tim were big fans and went through this journey with us yeah way to go very cool you guys congratulations very cool we've got a copy of the baby steps millionaires book for you the total money makeover book and Financial Peace membership for you to either go through it now or give it to somebody now that you're here. Baby Steps Millionaires, definitely your next step in your situation. You're on your way. That's called the Live and Give Bundle, the Live and Give Box. And so we'll give that to you at the break here.

And let's bring the guys up and introduce them with their names and ages. So we got Vincentcent we got victor and we got henry at three almost six and nine all right ready to go ready to go look at those good guys i'm matching blue polos yeah i didn't have anything to do with that by the way well their family tree has been changed their lives have been changed and they don't even completely understand what you two have done for them. But you're in really, really good shape. Congratulations.

Well done. Jason and Jody, Henry, Victor, and Vincent. Jacksonville, Florida. 365. House and everything paid off. Seven years and ten months. Make an 80 to 175. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream ready guys three two one well done you guys that's what it's about just steadily plowing through right there now a whole nother life completely changed so george that means that we've now done 53 debt-free screams this year wow since the beginning of the year for a total of just under 10 million dollars in debt paid off total that's pretty incredible so all kinds of backgrounds all kinds of incomes all kinds of family situations everybody's doing it and you've done this for 30 years now and the best part is that's encouraging to me is that anyone at any point can just decide i mean that's just a it's like a magic trick

that you could just wake up and go i don't want to live with $360,000 worth of debt anymore. I want things to be different. And then you just slowly but surely follow a proven process and pay it off. Yep. You get after it. There's no magic to it. You got to get started. You got to get after it. You got to push it through. You can do this. And what we know is that we are positive because we personally witnessed people from every background, every income, every situation, every race, creed, and color have been able to do this stuff. And we're willing to help all of you. We want to help all of you because it's why we're here. It is so fun to sit here and hear your stories of winning with a whole new look on mental health, a whole new look on your career, a whole new look on your money. Man, it's a completely different situation than most people live. This is fun stuff.

It's called The Ramsey Show. george camel ramsey personality is my co-host today announcing today that ramsey networks has launched a brand new youtube show on the george camel with a k george camel youtube channel you want to check it out it's pretty incredible exposing the system that's designed to keep you broke you're going to get into all of it aren't you george everything you can imagine all of the traps all of the trends i'm going to break the complex down into simple make the boring stuff fun to hopefully give you guys some hope and tell you the truth about money and help you win good stuff check it out george camel on youtube brand new show uh drop. He's the co-host on the ever-popular Smart Money Happy Hour with Rachel Cruz as well. Hey, folks, if you're liking what you're hearing here, we appreciate you.

We do not have a $300 million marketing budget or any football stadiums named after us. Like SoFi. So nobody. And we actually help people as opposed to SoFi. Excuse me. Get this guy some clarity. Allergies are bad in Tennessee this year. But, yeah, we actually just help people.

And if you want to help us, since you're just kind of chiming in here for free, tell people about this show. Tell us where you're listening. Send a share off of the YouTube or a share off your podcast or just tell people, let's do it on such-and-such talk radio station or watch on TBN, whatever it is you're doing, to let people know that we're here. Share it.

Number two, they should leave a five-star review. The others aren't helpful. No. And I don't understand why you would even take the time to go to a podcast review just to be like i didn't like just move on with your life if you paid for it and then it was a bad deal i might that's one thing but i mean just move on anyway mama said if you hang anything nice to say don't say anything at all so five star review would be awesome share it would be awesome subscribe hit the follow button hit the subscribe button all three of those things advance us forward in the algorithms that these different platforms use

and cause people who don't know this show exists to know it exists so you're very helpful when you do all three of those thank you very very much anna is in chicago hi anna welcome to the ramsey show hi dave thank you so much for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So my husband and I are kind of in a unique position. We've been married for a few years, and the only debt we had was student loans, which we were working really hard towards paying off. And then, you know, with COVID, they end up getting deferred.

But we still, you know, took the same amount of money and we just put it into savings. Why don't you pay them off? Well, I know that's kind of a touchy topic with you. Our mentality is he's been watching everything at the government. You know, he's waiting to see if the 10 grand is forgiven. How much do you owe? His are around 80K and mine are... So what the hell's 10 grand got to do with it?

You owe 80 grand. Well, it could be 10 grand less that we give to them. So pay them off. All right. How much have you got in the bank um we well we did have about 90k and so um you know we we had reached the amount that he had and he took he's like so here's the thing anna if you owe eighty thousand dollars that you signed up for and you have $90,000 to pay it, you should pay it. You owe the money. I don't want to have to pay it for you.

I'm a taxpayer that has to pay this because you're trying to play some freaking game with the government. You should just pay your bill. That's what you should do. All right, Stephen is with us. Stephen is in Washington, D.C. Hey, Stephen, how are you? Hey, David. Good.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So one of your inputs on a decision that my wife and I are trying to make right now, looking to decide between whether or not we should pay cash to build a small mother-in-law suite or take out a construction loan to build a primary residence on a five-acre lot that we just purchased. I'm confused. Where's the mother-in-law suite? On a house you currently own? No, we're currently renting right now.

Where would you add the mother-in-law suite? Where would you add the mother-in-law suite? To a rental? We build the mother-in-law suite first, and then build the main house as an addition down the road once we have some more money saved up. Oh, it's not really for the mother-in-law. Correct. It's really for you. So you're basically building a tiny house for now. Yes. Until you can afford the primary. Yes. How much money do you have?

So we're looking to have about $200,000 saved up by the end of the year, which is when we're looking to start construction. The mother-in-law suite that we're thinking about, we could build within that budget and pay cash for. The primary house that would be option B, we think would be around $700,000 to build. So we'd do a construction loan to fund that. What do you guys make a year? What's your household income? We're around $215,000 a year.

Okay. Well, there's two answers to the equation, or two answers to the question. Around here we don't yell at people for taking out a mortgage that is more than a fourth of your take, as long as the payment's no more than a fourth of your take-home pay on a 15-year fixed rate. And this construction loan converted to a permanent mortgage after completion of construction would not violate that. So you'd be within the things that we suggest here. Okay? The second answer to

the equation is I don't borrow money. I pay cash for things or I don't do them period. And so that's always an option as well, which is the second, which is a thing. So either way you go, you would be within the guidelines of what we suggest here. You're going to be easily within those guidelines. So how long have you been saving money? About five or so years. You've not been making this kind of money that long then? No. Okay. How long have you been making $250,000?

Combined, we recently got married. So within the past six months or so, we've been steadily increasing. You know, what I would do is I would lay out the game plan that says, if I build the whole house, how fast can I pay it off? Okay. Okay. build the whole house how fast can i pay it off okay okay so let's pretend that you put 200 000 down and you got the paid for lot already right yes and you're making 250 and you borrow 750 and we put we agree we're going to put 150 a year on it and so we're going to be done in like five years or something like that if you said that to each other and you wanted to go ahead and build the house so we're going to pay off the whole thing in five years and have a paid for house that by then will probably be worth a million dollars well with a lot and all it would be for sure with the

five acres we probably be worth that from day one but the um or close anyway all of that makes sense but that's a way you could look at it and say then what we're arguing about is not really whether we take out a construction loan and a permanent mortgage what we're really arguing about is five years how long we wait to be dead free okay we're arguing about do we have the house for the five years and pay it off very aggressively or do we save up very aggressively and build the house a little bit at a time with the mother-in-law suite strategy yeah and you're basically pre-deciding before you ever jump into this purchase what's going to happen instead of hoping that you can make the numbers work that's always a bad plan so if you walk into this with patience and you realize i don't need the mother-in-law suite let's just do the primary residence but we wait a year

that might be the other option yep yeah so you. So all of these, in other words, fall within the smart column. None of these are in the dumb column. None of these are you're being ridiculous or anything like that. The key is to keep on living like you were making the money you were making before. Yeah, that'd be pretty cool. Yeah, just kind of keep your lifestyle down, and you can chunk this thing away real fast, which sets you up to be sitting in a million-dollar property with a million-dollar net worth at a very young age,

making $250,000 a year. You're going to be so wealthy, it'll be unbelievable with no house payment. That's going to be a pretty cool place to be. So regardless of which way you get there, that should be where you are within five years or so. Really cool. Well done. Very well done, Stephen.

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