The Ramsey Show - App - My Husband & I Disagree on Paying Off Our Student Loans (Hour 1)

Episode Date: January 14, 2022

Home Buying, Debt, Education, Relationships, Saving, Budgeting As heard on this episode: Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/3rZTUAx Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2Q64HME Insurance Coverage Checkup: https://bit.ly/3sXwUn5 Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/3utmVXi Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3fHhbVE

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I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where dad is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey personality, best-selling author. My daughter is my co-host

today as we answer your questions about your life and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225 and some say the advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. This is a show about your life, your career, your money, your work, your relationships, you. And we're here to help you with all of it. In this crazy, mixed-up, angry world out there, there's still some people out here with common sense. And the good ones end up being attracted to this show. We're glad you're here. Open phones again, 888-825-5225. Adam's going to start us off in Atlanta, Georgia.

Hi, Adam. Welcome to the ramsey show hi dave and rachel how are you both doing today great man what's up so my question is whether i should buy or rent um so a little background i'm currently serving in the army uh getting ready to move duty stations here this summer um my next assignment will be for about three years. I'm just wondering what is going to set me up in the best position to buy a rent. It's a great, great question, Adam.

Number one, thanks for your service. We appreciate that. Everyone that serves, we greatly honor you and appreciate you. And when it comes to buying a home and staying in something long-term, kind of the rule of thumb that we always use is around five years. So if you're going to be somewhere five years and permanently stay there, then investing into a home is a great option. But we've talked to a lot of military folks out there that, you know, that you guys, in essence of what you do, that you are moving constantly. And sometimes it's more of a headache to own something and try to keep that going versus just renting because oftentimes it's short term, like you said, just three years.

So usually the rule of thumb there is if you're there five years or longer, that's when I would recommend buying. Here's the two sides of the equation, Adam, and you can run the equation for yourself, all right? What happens too many times is guys in the military, gals in the military think, oh, owning a home is always smart. Everybody should own a home. You ought to buy a house. You ought to buy a house. And they buy a house in a military community where there's constant turnover,

and it's very difficult to sell a house because there's always a bunch of houses for sale. Also, they don't always go up in value as much because there's always a bunch of houses for sale. Also, they don't always go up in value as much because there's always a bunch of houses for sale. And then they end up, oh, well, I'll just rent it. And you look up at the end of your career, and you've got seven rental properties in seven different cities that were former residences that you became a landlord by default. Well, that we don't want you to do, and you don't want to do that. Okay? Now, the times that you can buy is what rachel's saying when you reach a point in your career or you uh take the type of a

position in your career where you're going to be there a little longer it's going to make sense even if you're there only three years there's a few times it might work, and here's how you can actually do the math to make the decision. You can contact one of our ELPs in the area, one of our real estate ELPs in the area, and you're looking for two things in that market. And I would go back a couple of years. I wouldn't count this last 12 months because they're weird in the real estate market. But other than the last 12 months, I would say, what is the average appreciation rate within 5 or 10 miles of the area I'm looking at?

Okay? And if the average appreciation rate is 3% and you're there three years, you're going to lose money when you resell. You understand? Okay. But if the average appreciation rate not counting whacked out 21 okay or or at the end of 20 if the average appreciation rate is 7 to 10 what's going to go up 30 percent while you're there and you know you could probably make money agreed right

but you need to be able to resell it and that's the second statistic you're looking for, which is DOM, days on the market. What's the average days on the market on homes within a 10-mile radius of where I am looking? If the average days on the market is 270, that's nine freaking months. You're stuck in this house. You can't give it away. You don't buy there. You follow me? But if the average days on the market within a 10 mile radius

is three days or 21 days or something like that that's a pretty hot market oh by the way you're going to see these numbers correlate if you're seeing good uh good increases in value you're going to see short days on the market uh you're going to see them together if you see long days on the market you're going to see lower increases in value and it literally depends on the market uh you're going to see them together if you see long days on the market you're going to see lower increases in value and it literally depends on the area i mean if you're navy and you get stationed in san diego you probably roll in and out of that baby and make some money yeah but if you're in the the plains of kansas and there's no one within a 20 mile radius except military people you're not going to get out of that one. You know, that's not going to be a long-term investment for you unless you're there long-term.

So that's the way you can run the numbers on it and tell. But most of the time, I'd say 90% of the time when you do all that, you're going to discover, if I'm here three years, it doesn't make sense. Well, and even that, I mean, whether it's, you know, military or we even talk to young couples that, young couples that they're just newlyweds, they get married, they want a house. But just the factor of owning a home and everything that it takes to keep up with that, there's just a level of that responsibility you always have to filter through when you own a home because it's all yours. The more crap you own, the more repairman you have to know. 100%. The more crap you own, the more repairman you have to know. A hundred percent. So sometimes, and I think within the military, I know different positions take different levels of stress for sure. But especially if you're in a stress-filled role in the military, there's a part of you that's like, there's a... Yeah, just don't worry about it.

Yeah, it's something you don't have to worry about when you're renting. Don't worry about the heat there going out. We'll call the landlord. I know. I don't know. There's something I like about that. Yeah, call the landlord and go, your house is broke. Come fix it. Come fix it. Yeah, it's something you don't have to worry about when you're renting. Don't worry about the heat and air going out. We'll call the landlord. I know. I don't know. There's something I like about that. Yeah, call the landlord and go, hey, your house is broke. Come fix it.

Come fix it. Yeah, and then it gets fixed. Then you're done. That's it. There's something to be said for that, for sure. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thank you for joining us. Kelly is in Traverse City, Michigan.

Hi, Kelly. Welcome to the ramsey show hi dave and rachel pleasure talking to you both you too how can we help my husband and i are disagreeing on what to do with his student loan we currently owe seventeen thousand dollars we have the cash right now to pay them off um but we're both registered nurses here in Northern Michigan, and the CEO of our hospital is implementing a retention plan, which is forgiveness for $12,000 of federal student loans. But because it's a retention plan, it is $200 a month for the next,

you know, four to five years. And I would like to just pay them off and be done with it and not have the debt hanging over our head. But my husband thinks that taking advantage of this free money is the smarter. It's not smart. Your husband's wrong. So what do you do in your marriage when your husband's wrong? Well. Hellie, I'm sorry.

I feel for you. I do. And this is hard because here's. Oh, I'm sorry. I feel for you. I do. And this is hard because here's... Let's come back to this. This is a good conversation. Okay. All right. Hold on.

Hold on, Kelly. We'll come back. Rachel wants to be reasonable. Hold on. We'll come right back with you. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. Folks, having an ID theft protection plan has just become a necessity in today's digital world. For you and your children, the risk of being a victim is higher than ever. With all of these devices and time spent online, not to mention the scams and hacks occurring every day,

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We're talking with Kelly in Traverse City, Michigan. Her hospital is offering a $12,000 forgiveness over five years. And they owe $17,000 on student loans. They have the money to pay it off. She wants to pay it off. Her husband doesn't. What do I do was her question. And I was joking with her and saying, what do you do when your husband's wrong?

But so anyway, that's how far we got. Is that a fair summary of what you told us, Kelly? Yeah. Okay. Okay. So what I was going to say kelly is and again this is a little stereotypical so it's not true 100 of the time but generally men tend to lean more on kind of that the the logic math side a little less on the emotional side right women can i feel like can

naturally go there a little bit quicker than men. So when it comes to debt and even student loans, there's this idea that, yeah, if I can just do the math, it's going to play out, right? So he's looking at the math. He's seeing the logic. And he's thinking, yeah, I mean, someone's going to pay this off. This is great. Where you're feeling on the other end, we have the money, and there's a level of probably less stress stress a level of freedom that you know you're going to experience when this is paid off am i am i right or wrong is this correct right yeah yes so whenever couples do tend to disagree especially when it comes to money um i think going to him

because you hesitated when he said what are you doing your husband's wrong uh so i don't know how you guys do conflict i don't know how you come to decision making. We've only been talking for about 30 seconds. But one thing I really would encourage you to do is to go to him and we always say, tell him your why. And that why may not make logical sense because to him, he's thinking, I'm going to get free money and someone's going to pay this off and X, Y, and Z.

And to really unpack with him what you're seeing, what you're feeling, and why you want this paid off. And that could be because you don't want your destiny in someone else's hands. We talk about that a lot when it comes to student loans. A lot of people depend on whether it's DC or these programs that say, hey, if you work for us 10 years, we'll pay it off. Who knows what's going to happen, right? In all this time. And when you're passive and you let other people handle your future, you're letting go of really the will to go and say, I can change my life.

So there could be an ownership issue that you struggle with for you. Maybe you are distressed with just having debt, whether it was a car loan or a student loan, doesn't matter. You don't like having the debt. I don't know what it is for you, Kelly, but whatever that why is of I want this paid off because we have the money,

go to him with that first and foremost versus blaming or being accusatory. Really, when you go with that why, I think it's one of the best ways to start and open up the conversation. So that is really good counsel. Let me tell you why he's wrong, and maybe that'll help too. Okay? Okay.

If you told me they were going to pay you $12,000 as a retention bonus in 12 months, I'd go with him on it. But you're not. You getting 200 a month it's not spit it's not spit that's 2400 a year right and this is dragging out forever forever and this is this is golden handcuffs in a highly volatile COVID-laced vaccination world that you live in the middle of where health care workers are on the front line, and you don't want to be handcuffed to anything. You want to keep your freedom because you may have to make some different choices. And this is golden handcuffs.

Yeah. Right now, the interest is zero percent so interest isn't relevant right but when once it goes back that's not even two hundred dollars isn't even covering the interest that's a good point too but it is relevant mathematically but here's the thing it's dragging out too long it's the free money is not worth the trade-off the for the length of time if it was a short period of time i would i would i would throw the flag and i would argue with you that he was right okay uh but it's too long it's drug out the borrower is slave to lender and rachel's right there's a sense that of release there's a sense of employment freedom, of medical freedom.

Your medical freedoms aren't trapped. You get to choose what happens if you don't handcuff yourself to one particular situation. And the tradeoff is not worth it here because it's just too long. And all of this to say, five years from today, ten years from today, which of these two decisions puts you guys in the best position? Pay it off today. Pay it off today. Yeah. And the reason it puts you in the best position is it frees you up to work

wherever you freaking choose to work that is best for you and you don't you're not looking over your shoulder going oh but they got that student loan forgiveness thing you know and you're not you're not handcuffed to it uh and so it's golden handcuffs is what it is and that's why they're doing it by the way it's retention and it's why they're dragging it out is to keep you in a volatile environment for health care workers uh you guys are you know that that world is has been going through medical hell now it's starting to go through legal and vaccination hell and there's just a huge turnover huge problem there's going to be a huge shortage of health care workers uh with what's going on out

there and it's the same thing with teachers same thing with policemen and uh when the teachers the health care workers and the policemen in our culture are all being mistreated at the same time we as a culture we've got some issues coming that aren't going to be pretty yeah and you're going to be caught right in the middle of that you're going to be caught right in the middle of that. You're going to be caught right in the middle of that, trapped by this one decision to get a little bit of free money. It ain't worth it, kiddo. It ain't worth it. And again, this is when we always say here on the show, personal finance, it's 80% behavior.

It's 20% head knowledge. The head knowledge part, the logic part that he's functioning in, there's so much more when it comes to money than just looking at just the math. But when but when you sit in the math that's what he's playing over and over and over again his math formula is wrong my point okay because here's the situation here's what's coming in her world she's going to have the opportunity to raise her income by more than twelve thousand dollars by changing jobs 62 times in the next five years. Yes. Yep. And she doesn't want to be trapped with this stupid little $12,000 benefit over here in

that particular job. 100%. No, I hear that totally. But again, he has to be able to get above that and look at all the options on the table. Yes. Yes. Partly math, but also... He went down the rabbit hole and got stuck down there with a little short-term, a little limited vision on the math.

That's my point. Yeah. And he's super nerding. And didn't he miss some of the variables? Yes. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thank you for joining us, America. Daniel is in L.A.

Hey, Daniel, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, how are you? Better than I deserve. How can I help? Hey, yeah. So my wife and I currently live in a 850 square foot house that we bought two bedroom, one bath. I work from home and we have a baby on the way. Um, and we were wondering if we should take money and buy or build like a accessory doling unit or a granny flat in the back of our house. We have a little bit more space so that when our parents come visit um and when i work from home there's

a little more space might do it for work for home but not for parents visiting parents visiting go to a hotel okay because the math doesn't make sense i mean what you're going to spend there so they can spend the night eight nights a year five nights a year it doesn't make sense but for you to have a place to work with a kid screaming in an 850 square foot deal yeah i'm in okay so it would cost about 180 000 and we could pay cash what it's la yeah no it's not la la's got the same construction cost it's just the dirt under it that's expensive and he's already got the same construction costs. It's just the dirt under it that's expensive. And he's already got the dirt. What are you building back there, dude?

We can maybe build like a two-bedroom, two-bath. House. Yes, sir. You're building a house. I thought you were building a little room back there. Yeah, I think the plan would be to build like a two-bedroom, two-bath. Yeah, you may be overbuilding the neighborhood. You need to look at that. That's a big project.

You might be better off just to move to something that's not 850 feet. This is not a renovation. This is a teardown rebuild. I mean, gee, that's a big move right there. I think you could be overbuilding your neighborhood. You may want to just take that 180 and go to a different place and live that's got the square footage all together and nice and built in. Don't overbuild your neighborhood.

Be careful. I really think there's a chance you are. Come to think about it. 850 feet. Yeah, it's almost one of those mini house things. This is The Ramsey Show. It's book launch here. Book launch week this week here at Ramsey. Baby Steps Millionaires is selling very well.

Thank you very much. We appreciate all of you picking that book up. How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth and How You Can Too. We had an exciting event last night with Rachel Cruz, George Camel, and I talking about building wealth in 2022. It was a free live stream for about 150,000 folks joined us online, and then we had about 1,500 in the audience. It was a lot of fun. Yes, it was. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, it was.

Yes, it was. It was a great event. Good stuff. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Brittany is with us. Hi, Brittany. How are you? Hi, Dave. Hi, Rachel.

I'm great. How are you? Better than we deserve. I like your T-shirt. I'm debt-free. Thank you. I like it. I like it.

I like it. Where do you live? Akron, Ohio. Cool. Welcome to Nashville. I'm debt free. Thank you. I like it. I like it. I like it. Where do you live? Akron, Ohio. Cool. Welcome to Nashville. How much debt have you paid off? $138,346. Dang, girl. Get it. Get it. How long did this take? 47 months. Wow. Four years. And how much, what was your range of income during that time? I ranged from $57,000 up to $74,000. And then COVID kind of killed the side hustles. So I ranged about $68,000 the last two years. Good.

Good for you. What kind of debt was your $138,000? All student loans. All student loans. You gave Sally Mae her eviction notice. Yes. Tossed the old woman in the street. I like it.

Good for you. Well done. Well done. What was your degree in? I have it. Good for you. Well done. Well done. What was your degree in? I have a master's of occupational therapy. Ah, and that's what you're doing, I assume? Yes. Good.

Good for you. Okay, so tell us your story. What happened four years ago that started you on this whole journey to get out of debt? So I just remember standing in my kitchen, scrolling through Facebook, and my friend from high school, Emily, she posted about her debt and her debt-free scream. And I immediately messaged her and said, we have to talk. So she asked me questions and what my bank account looked like, what I was doing for retirement. And she just walked me through the baby steps and she said, drain your account to $1,000 and stop contributing to contributing to retirement and the next day that's what I did. Wow dang coached you right

up yes yes wow and then you you just followed what she said or you got plugged into us or what? So for Christmas actually my boyfriend bought me Financial Peace University and so I listened to you every day on the podcast. So some days I had really long drives and I listened to you for hours. If I had a five minute drive, I'm still listening to you. Wow, wow. Well, thank you. So Brittany, that's a pretty quick turnaround

just from a Facebook post. So up until that point, were you feeling the tension of the debt? Was it like, oh, I'm gonna have this for, like, was it just, what were you feeling like before that? And then you kind of saw this ray of hope of like, oh my gosh, I can get rid of this. Yeah. So, um, I actually, a couple months before that signed for a mortgage and my student loan was higher than my mortgage. Um, and so that was just kind

of a tipping point that it was in my head, like this, this is going to take me forever to pay off. And then the website of your student loans is great. And it shows you the chart of how much you'll actually pay off with your terms. So it was $270,000. Oh, wow. Yes. And so I saw that. And, you know, in two years, getting out of grad school, my debt was $127,000.

And then when I started being intentional it jumped to 138 000 wow dang so that's it was just kind of i'm gonna have these for the next 20 25 years there's no way out of this and then your friend's post gives you a glimmer of hope yes and that's what you're doing for somebody today i hope somebody's watching this debt-free scream right this second and they're going wait a minute wait a minute it doesn't have to be this way i can get out i can be free i can be free it's hard though isn't it it is it's a long four years yes yes what was your best side hustle um personal training oh that makes sense occupational therapy i bet you're a great trainer you actually would know what the flip you're doing that's cool good good. Good for you. So what was the hardest part for you?

You know, it was really, it was a lonely journey because you have your friends going out buying stuff and or inviting you out. And then you would just watch the numbers sometimes stay stagnant. So I remember I saw the debt I was working on was $80,000 and I'm, um, but how the loans work, they're little tokens. So you have like the little loans in between, but you see one going down while your other ones are just kind of staying there. So I saw one loan just sit, stick at like $60,000 for a long time. And I'm like, this is never going to go away. That is hard. And it can, I mean mean it would feel isolating right i mean when you're

when you are you're you're doing it by yourself as you're single right and you're like i'm in that and there's a blessing and a curse to that right that you it's just you that you got to do it but it's also just you that has to do it and there's a level of intentionality that i always think when people do this on their own obviously you had great you know you had friends around you i hope and supported you. Who were your biggest cheerleaders? Definitely my boyfriend, Levi. He supported me a lot.

He actually walked into the bathroom and saw my razor without the handle, and he went to throw it away. I'm like, no, no, that's mine. And he's like, it has no handle. I'm like, it's fine. So then the next month, he bought me razors, and he's like here

please this is pitiful this is really pitiful you need a razor yes like please like put this in your budget um so he he definitely was and whenever i would get too zoned in and you know like every single quarter or penny he would reel me back in and be like it's okay you're going to make it through this yeah that's good that's good good balanced yes like it like it well done i'm proud of you how's it feel to be free amazing i'm just working through baby step three now and that's harder than baby step two i know you guys say that a lot and you know it's a few months but it's hard because you don't have that debt anymore yeah and you're still saving to get to it but it feels so great that i don't have that lurking over my head absolutely i mean 138 thousand dollars is gone that's pretty stinking incredible yes well done very cool good job good

job good job what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is you have to be intentional you have to follow the budget um dave you talk about when your wife has a feeling um i remember i had a feeling one january that i was going to come into a big expense and i was like okay i'm just going to hoard all my money see what happens and then march came and my car broke down and And, you know, you go to different car places and they're just, you just feel slimy when you go to leave. And I found a car from a reliable guy and it was the exact amount I had saved up minus my $1,000 emergency fund. Wow. And I was like, done. Did the trade, loved it. And then and then you know when you get off track there was another morning that I'm I had an opportunity to go to Paris and I was like I can't go to Paris but um I I was being

torn and then the next morning I'm driving and I'm at this red light and this sweet girl it's like 5 a.m calls you and says Dave I have an opportunity to go to Paris and you are yelling at her like no and I'm sitting there at the red light like Dave knows he knows right now and then the next month a pandemic occurred so I couldn't go anyways oh wow but you know it was just like the universe is just kind of telling you when you're intentional. But when you're not, you can just, you know, I've had those months that I found $100 and then it's just gone because, you know, it wasn't budgeted. It was spent. Yeah. Yeah.

Way to go. Way to go. That's very cool. I love that. That's a great story. Oh, so fun. Well, we've got a copy of Baby Step steps millionaires for you because for sure that's the next chapter in your story you're amazing you are you're a force of nature kiddo and also

a copy of the total money makeover for you to give away and get somebody started because you never know who's going to call you when you post this debt free scream on your facebook you never know right so well done i'm proud of you good stuff good stuff well done thank you britney akron ohio 138 000 paid off in 47 months making 57 to 74 count it down let's hear a debt scream okay three two one i'm debt free Yeah! Amazing. This is how you get it done. Yeah!

Wow! So great, Brittany. Congrats. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMSY to get the best possible deal. And today's question comes from Kenzie in Utah. My husband and I recently are recently married and debt-free. Our household income is a bit over $100,000. We recognize that we've been blessed to

be a blessing to others, so we give pretty substantially out of ourK. We recognize that we've been blessed to be a blessing to others, so we give pretty substantially out of our income. We're very committed to our church and to giving resources to mission efforts around the world. As we talk about buying a house in the next few years, we find it difficult to plan and save when our heart is to give out of our abundance. How do we find a good balance of giving generously and planning for our future? It's a great question, Kenzie. What a great heart. I was about to say.

You sound amazing. Well, you know, there's kind of this way of looking at giving in two buckets. I think there's a little bit more of kind of the emotional side, right? You hear of something, you're at something, someone mentions some amazing nonprofit or something, and you think, okay, I just want to write a check. I just want to give. I want to give. I want to give right there in the moment. And then there's that spontaneous factor. Then there's more of the planned giving where you say, okay, I'm going to really map out and look at the places that I give, research them, making sure that they are legitimate, which I'm sure you guys have done

with your church and the efforts that you're giving to with missions around the world. But you're strategic on the amount too that you say, okay, here's our budget and here's what we're going to give to. So neither one necessarily is right or wrong. I think that leaning toward that planned giving though, Kinsey, is what I would encourage you to do to say, hey, sit down and actually put numbers to what's going on. Because if you are budgeting and you guys are debt free, so you're going to be able to have more margin to give, which is amazing. And to say, okay, we want to give, I don't care what it is, 20, 25%, 10%, 12%, whatever you guys feel like, okay, this is a good amount for us to give and plan that and then say, okay,

out of that and out of our budget, how much do we have to save for a down payment on a home? And then just map it out over the next couple of years and see where that gets you because both are great. Saving up for a down payment payment on home is awesome and giving generously is amazing but you guys need to put a little bit more detailed um planning around it so that you can make both happen instead of kind of just it sounds a little bit on a whim some of your giving um i would be a little bit more detailed with it but i want to reframe right now in your mind i

want to reframe your your paradigm on this k reframe right now in your mind, I want to reframe your paradigm on this, Kenzie, because right now in your mind, the way you've described this, it's as if buying a house feels selfish and counterproductive because that money could be used for generosity. And it feels like these two things are competing with each other. And I don't think that's a correct and I don't think that's correct. I don't think that's real. What's real is buying a house will cause you to become wealthier than renting. If you rent your entire life, you're going to have less money than if you buy a house

because rent goes up every year. When you buy a house, the house goes up, and it becomes an asset, and you've stabilized and locked in your housing cost it's not going up every year other than taxes and insurance might go up but i mean the the cost of the biggest cost you have is your residence where you're where you're going to stay you know and so if you want to give more the the best way to give more is to build more wealth. And stabilizing your housing cost is going to cause you to build more wealth. So they're not working against each other long term. They might be this month or they might be over a year while you're trying to get into the house

and it's more expensive than where you are now. It might be right then but over the course of 40 years or 30 years owning a house is going to cause you to be able to be more generous and so let's not let's not frame this that these two things are competing but if you pan back with a long enough lens on this you will see that buying a house is going to cause you to be able to be more generous i'll give an example okay i don't have a house payment rachel doesn't have a house payment we can be more generous than somebody that has rent you know it's pretty simple so uh you know you just don't have that big

hairy payment that most people have got yeah you know it's a couple thousand dollars and most people's budget a month or 1500 bucks a month or whatever it is and most people's budget that we don't have and so you can that's money we've got that's free to invest and or to give yes and there's nothing unholy about planning either right because there's a little bit to mind of man plans his ways and the lord directs his steps yep yeah scripture says so there's a there's a level of being a good steward in this too kenzie of you guys sitting down and actually planning what's happening yeah and you know i we plan our impulses i mean it's we leave some we plan a line item in the ramsey family foundation budget annually to do some giving that we don't know what it is yet yeah and so we've planned but and then we've got certain ministries and things that we are supporting that we very

definitely lay down there but we leave some margin in there for things that are going to come our way that we don't know yet yes and so that's planning your impulse i mean it's kind of funny but it's very true it's what we do good Good stuff. Everyone needs health insurance. If you're alive, I assume you're listening, and that means you need health insurance. Everyone needs health insurance. Healthy people, high-deductible plans the best way. And if you need to know more about health insurance, a place to get the best deal, you can do that with one of our health insurance ELPs.

They will shop around and get you the best possible deal and help you customize the plan to your situation. What's the best type of plan for you? HSA, PPO, what's the best thing in your situation? They'll walk you through every bit of that. RamseySolutions.com slash health. I'll plug you in with the health insurance ELP. Charles is in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Hey, Charles, welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave, thanks for taking the call, Rachel. I was on the Building Wealth Seminar last night, and we covered inflation, high-level kind of definition there. I had a question. Did you have any deeper advice budget-wise, like on certain categories? I mean, in our budget, we're seeing food go up. We can eat out less.

Is it a horrible time to do some home improvements? We've kind of had planned, obviously, costs are up. Our car replacement fund, I've added to that. Just given the cost of used cars going up, so when we get time to replace it, I'm going to have a little more saved up. And then all that said, as that kind of eats into our budget, I'd like to answer that as kind of the first part. There are certain areas of the budget more advantageous to change than others.

And then the second part, if I run out of room anywhere else, is it a horrible time to adjust 401K? We don't have any debt, but just temporary during short-term inflation. No, I would adjust everything before I adjusted that. Okay. All these home improvements and car replacement funds and all that stuff, that's all zeroed long before you touch your 401K. Fifteen percent going in the 401K is not the time to step out of that.

That's panic. Yeah, not step out. Or even adjusting it down. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. No. But I think the main thing you need to adjust for more than anything else is your timing on a large purchase, like home improvement, you may want to wait and let building supplies and labor come down

because they're both out of control right now. Buying a used car. If you don't have to buy a car right now, it's a horrible time to buy a car. Absolutely horrible. And if you don't have to, this is not the time to buy a car. I'm not, I mean, I like cars, and I'm not buying a car right now. Not a chance. So I'm just going to let these, because it's just moronic.

It's just out of control. I mean, the used car market, and it's all about what we were talking about last night. It's a shortage. Yeah. It's just out of control i mean the used car market and it's all about what we were talking about last night it's a shortage yeah it's a shortage of vehicles and so when the new mark when the new factories get back up to speed and they're dumping new on the street like they used to and it's not a nine month waiting period for a freaking toyota truck how absurd you know but when we get the people back in the factory and we get those trucks hitting the street again or cars hitting the street again then that's going to loosen up the used car market but the used car market's being driven up because the new car market has a microchips tremendous

technology either you can't get the technology yeah so there's going to be some adjustments but it's not the time to do those two things so i would put those off the main place you need to adjust your budget more than anything else other than timing is just the stuff that's the reality i mean it calls for more to fill your gas tank right now so yeah yeah food and gas rachel's right uh your utilities shouldn't have changed much i'm not seeing those move much so you just kind of look at what's the reality of my budget and just map it out. This is The Ramsey Show. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life?

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