The Ramsey Show - App - My Husband Is Not on Board With Me Being a Stay-at-Home Mom (Hour 1)

Episode Date: September 24, 2021

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Thank you very much. Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I am Ramsey personality and bestselling author, Rachel Cruz. And next to me today co-hosting is Ramsey personality and bestselling author, Christy Wright. This is fun. I can't believe they let us do this. I know.

We get to be together. We're real life friends. So the fact that we get to have a microphone for America is a little scary. I wonder how nervous Jamesames gets on fridays when we're together it's fun how you feeling james you okay it's gonna be great but we are gonna answer your questions again about life and money um and you i mean and life balance too can we just throw that in because i always think that's a very interesting subject matter in our world today yeah and your book that has launched out into the world. And it's all on this.

Just over a week. And there's such a correlation between the problem we have with time, the struggles we have with time and the struggles we have with money, because it takes time to work a second job. It takes time to reach your goals. It takes time to dig yourself out of debt. These things don't happen by accident. And we give people the money plan. But of course, there's a time implication of that. And so I just think there is such a connection between what I'm doing with my new book, Take Back Your Time, the guilt-free guide to life balance to show you how you can reach your goals and even be gazelle intense and baby step two, by the way, you have permission to focus on the right things at the right time. And it's such a connection with what we are

known for as a company of being the people that help people get out of debt and take control of their money. So it's super exciting, even though it feels like a different topic. It's really not. It really is completely connected to what we do. Oh, 100%. Yes. And it's just, it is life. And that's what I, that's, those are the subjects I obviously love to dive into, but it is. I'm like, whether you're a mom with four kids trying to juggle it all, whether you're single, whether you're retired, all of it, we all have a set amount of time. And how we use it, it just feels like is so, so key and so important. And the fact that you hit on that, I love so much. So give us a call at 888-825-5225.

So we'll go to Sarah in Sacramento. Hey, Sarah, welcome to the show. Hi. Thank you guys for having me. five. So we'll go to Sarah in Sacramento. Hey, Sarah, welcome to the show. Hi. Thank you guys for having me. I just had a quick question. Hopefully I can get an answer from you guys. But basically I started reading the money makeover and right now my partner and I are in the process of saving money towards fertility treatments. But I want to start the money makeover because I have about $44,000 just in either car loan, personal loan, and on, sorry, an AC unit as well.

So I was just curious, should I start the money makeover or maybe continue saving for the fertility treatments? Yeah. I guess I'm just me. No, it's a great question. Thank you for the guidance. How much money do you make?

Or what's your household income? I'm just under, just me, I'm just under $100,000. Okay. And how much, I don't know how much the fertility treatments are. How much are those? We're estimating right now, so we're doing a whole bunch of research is maybe between like five and eight thousand okay well and um i do i'm like i was just gonna mention on my car i have about 15 000 left and i know i can sell it right now for probably about 35 so i was considering

maybe selling it taking the money and just paying down as much debt as possible. Yes. That's going to be a yes there. Yes from us. Well, that's amazing. I mean, because, yeah, I think part of and as you read the book, but part of this idea of and I love how motivated you are, right? You're like, I really want to start this is how you can decrease lifestyle, how you can up your income.

And part of that equation is selling stuff. And so looking around and say, okay, what are things that I can just sell and make money as quickly as possible to put towards this? And so assets, even like a car, and especially since you still have debt on it, it's like, yeah, you can wipe that out. And Ken Coleman and I were on the show yesterday talking about this because it got brought up multiple times. But how you can find an amazing, a really great $5,000 car. They're everywhere. They're everywhere. Just for this season. That's right. Just for this amount of

time. And that will knock out, gosh, I mean, you only have $9,000 left of debt. And with your income, you're going to be able to get out of debt so very quickly within probably six months or less if you are really gazelle intense. And then you're going to be able to save up for that. So I think you can do a lot of this and even just the calendar year to start that process. Because I know starting a family is very important and I'm so pro that. I think that it's amazing. And especially since you're having to go down this route, timeline and stuff may be a little different. But yeah, I would for sure, yeah, sell the car and start working your way out.

Well, it's a different conversation too, Sarah, because you're only putting off these fertility treatments for a few months. We're not talking about putting it off for five years because you've got this huge mountain of debt. You don't. You have $40,000. You've got a way to get out of it pretty quickly. Save up for the fertility treatments. And then you're going down that path, which I would imagine from the friends that I've had that have gone down that path, it's very emotional. And so you want to go down that path with less stress as possible. And so if you're able to knock out this debt, you can pursue that without that debt weighing you down with just a clear head. So I love that idea of you getting out of debt quickly and then pursuing that goal, which is awesome.

Yeah. Yeah. And this is, you know, the family unit, if you will, of this process is an important one because there's multiple conversations we had. So those of you that have kids and you're starting this process, bringing them in and making it a family affair, if you will, of this process of cutting lifestyle, getting out of debt, bringing them along. Those of you out there that are expecting, if you are pregnant, about to have a baby, we always say press pause on the debt snowball and save up as much money as possible.

And then once baby is here and mom is good, then you can write a big check and knock out a bunch of your debts. And then in this case, we do get a lot of questions about fertility treatments because they can be extremely expensive. And it is. It is a very emotional process. And it does what you said, Christy, I think was so spot on, though. It gives you peace when you don't have the debt and when you don't go into debt for it, which is always a hard piece of advice for me to give for people when they ask, can I go into debt for this because I want a family?

And I'm like, oh, because I've heard the other stories of it. That's right. Sadly not working. And you're making those payments and you're making payments and all that. And then you want to adopt. And then there's, you know, it just is all this, but if you can just steady and have your goals, bring in more income, if you can and focus on what you want, you can do it. You can do all of it. Right. Um, but it's just a matter of kind of taking a deep breath and not just jumping in on complete emotions. Well, and people often call in and ask us about, well, I know the baby steps are in this order because, but here's my situation, but I think I'm an exception to the rule. But, and there are a handful of things like pressing pause when you're

expecting that type of thing. But for the most part, these baby steps are proven and laid out in this order for a reason. And it's because we want you to go into having a family, go into buying a house, go into these big, exciting, and stressful and emotional life changes debt-free when you can. And so we lay it out that way for a reason. And I think, Sarah,

you're going to experience it very differently when you don't have that debt weighing you down and the stress of the payments. And we're so excited for you. That's awesome. And you have a great income too, Sarah, you're going to experience it very differently when you don't have that debt weighing you down and the stress of the payments. And we're so excited for you. That's awesome. And you have a great income, too, Sarah. Yeah. I mean, you're going to be able to knock a lot of this out, which is so great.

So awesome. Well, again, you can give us a call at 888-825-5225, taking your questions here on The Ramsey Show. We'll see you next time. People always say, when I get this promotion, I'll be able to make a real impact. Wrong. When you make a solid plan on how you need to grow, you can become the leader you want to be. And that's why Ken Coleman, America's career coach and national best-selling author, wrote his new book, From Paycheck to Purpose, The Clear Path to Doing Work You Love. And it's available for pre-order right now. If you want to grow or create a legacy in your career, you need this book. It's not just a concept.

It's a proven, clear path that will walk anyone in any industry through a step-by-step plan to take their career to the next level. Plus, if you pre-order From Paycheck to Purpose today, you'll receive our Get Promoted bonus pack for free, which includes the audio book, ebook, disc assessment, an exclusive talk from Ken and access to our live event and more pre-order from paycheck to purpose at Ramsey solutions.com. Blinds.com a hundred percent satisfaction guarantee means even if you mismeasure or pick the wrong color they'll remake your blinds for free you get free samples free shipping and with the new promo codes they run every month you'll save even more use promo code ramsey to get the best deal rules and restrictions apply today's question comes from Callie in Ohio. I'm a teacher and I have a two-year-old child.

My husband and I are working on Baby Step 2 and should have our debt paid off in 23 months. After we get out of debt, we plan on having a second child. I would love more than anything to quit my job and stay at home, but my husband is not on board. I make $2,000 a month and getting out of debt will save us $1,400 a month. Our budget would be tight but doable. How do I convince him to let me stay at home? This is a good one. So my first question, if Callie were here and I could ask her a follow-up, I would be curious what their current child care situation is.

Because often people dismiss the exorbitant cost of childcare. 100%. And when women choose to stay home, it's not right for everybody. But for those who want to do that and it's right for them, often them staying home is saving them more in childcare than they're making in their full-time job. So it just makes sense for them to do that from a financial standpoint if that's all you're looking at.

So I'm just curious. I'm assuming a parent or someone is watching this child and would watch the second child so they're basically getting free child care yeah which is why that extra income makes a difference but um but looking at the cost of child care sometimes it's not just that but man i've noticed with matt rachel he is so factual and so logical that i can i can talk at the feelings level and he's just like, hmm, okay. But when I talk numbers, he seems to connect. Yeah, he connects more. So I would say that looking at the numbers and talking about that.

Now, if that's not an equation, one of the things that I've always done in any conversation, for that matter, is you really speak to the why. Why you want to. Why it's important to you. And that can, again, bring a deeper level to the communication, to the discussion versus staying at the surface where people kind of miss each other. Absolutely. And I think that connection point is key. And so for you guys, yeah, I think you're right. Mapping out the numbers, which I think is one way to get a husband on board of just getting out of debt. That's a question we have a lot is how do I get my husband on board or my spouse on board?

But when you just look at the timeframe, you realize, okay, it's not that long in the grand scheme of life, right? Maybe two, three years, 18 months to really buckle down and get rid of this debt.

And then when it, when you are debt free, it does free up the options and it does free up. And what she was saying of how much they'd save a month versus what she makes a month. I'm like, man, you could still quit your job and be able to save that amount of money when

you don't have the payments. And so it is, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's such a family values conversation as well. And there's not a right or wrong in it, right? Like what you're saying of the stay at home portion. And so you guys getting on the same page and again, talking about your why I think is so important. Well, the other thing that I think is, is good. And Matt might roll his eyes if he heard me say this, but I think just continuing to revisit the conversation. Don't look at us. I'm

going to have this conversation once we don't agree. So then we're just at a standstill. Matt and I, when we've had things that we disagree on everything from big things to small things, small, stupid stuff, like where we put the fence in our yard. Like we just circle back to it, circle back to it, discuss it, look at it through other angles. What are your concerns? What are my concerns? Is there a common ground? When you just continue to work through it, oftentimes you will find how you can come together. But if you see it as, well, we talked one time six years ago and he said no.

Well, we've got to be a little more persistent than that. We've got to keep working on it, care enough about your relationship and being on the same page and this decision to continue to work through it and try. Absolutely. And we're taking your calls again about life and money at 888-825-5225. So let's go to Holly in New Hampshire. Hey, Holly.

Welcome to the show. I think we lost Holly. Did we lose her? I think so. Maybe she'll come back. She had a great question. I know. lost Holly. That's okay. Did we lose her? I think so. Maybe she'll come back. That's okay. She had a great question. I know. The family questions are the hardest though.

I think Holly had a family question. This question from Callie is a family question. Those can be hard because there are financial principles that we teach

and those are proven. We have three decades of proof. We have millions of families that have been changed by them. And when you add the family dynamic, when you add the family dynamic, when you add the family values of like, hey, I don't feel represented in the budget,

or my husband and I disagree on how we should spend this $10,000, for example, he wants a motorcycle, I want to put it towards the house. You know, those are hard because you have to have these conversations to get on the same page. And that's less formulaic. Is that a word? Yes. No, it is. That's less a formula and more of the emotional communication connection, which is such a huge issue. Okay, let's try again. Holly, are you there?

Hi. I'm here. How are you, ladies? Great. Doing great. How are you? Pretty good. Bless.

Thank you. Absolutely. How can we help? Well, I am currently reworking our budget. Our income just about quadrupled with my husband finishing school. Awesome. Debt-free, by the way. Congratulations.

Thank you. I'm a little overwhelmed with the change, but I guess my main question is, as a stay-at-home mom, should I be getting some sort of allowance? How do I account for my spending money in our budget based on his income? Oh, I have some thoughts on this, Holly. I have some thoughts based on how you asked the question. Jump in.

Well, how do I get an allowance? Holly, this is not your husband's money. This is y'all's money. You're married, correct? Yes. Okay. Are the children just your children or are they his children too? No, we've got one son together and we've got one on the way.

Okay. Congratulations. And when you walked down the aisle, you became one. You decided to share your life, your time, your money, your children, all the things. So I want to break this idea that you are getting money from your spouse that you are one with, that you're getting an allowance or spending money. Even how you asked it, I think the premise of that is off because it's not his money. It's y'all's money. And by the way, we were just talking about

this on the blinds.com question, but there is an unbelievable cost of child care. If you were to replace yourself through child care and run the numbers of two kids in child care, that alone at the baseline is the value, the financial dollar amount that

you're bringing to your family on paper on the budget. So I want to start by just questioning the premise of how do I get money from him? This to me is not even a question. This is y'all's money. And like we were just saying, make decisions together. Yeah. And Holly, I'm assuming, I don't want to assume, so I'll ask you, are you feeling,

are you guys feeling overwhelmed when you said he quadrupled his income? So you guys are making more money than you probably ever even imagined. So is that feeling very overwhelming to you? Um, a little bit because I just want to make sure that we're doing the right things with the money and we've been following the baby steps and, um, all we've, all the debt we have actually, I paid off one of our car notes yesterday. Congratulations.

And so all we've got is just my car now left to pay off. And I want to be clear that he doesn't feel that this is his money. It is totally understood that this is our money. My main question, I guess, is just...

From more of a budget perspective of what does it look like? Yeah, more of a budget. Yeah, so what I would say for you guys, since you are coming into more money than you've had, right, is to increase your lifestyle a little bit at a time. So the budget that you guys have been having, just up some categories 10, 20%, maybe even just 10%, depending on the dollar amount and say, okay, I'm going to, we're going to up

that miscellaneous. We're going to up out to E or you need to get out of debt first, first and foremost, all that, all that cash. But yeah, this is, this is once kind of that is all paid off, which I'm assuming is going to happen very quickly. And, and to be able to say, okay, yes, I, you have a line item in the budget. He has a line item in the budget and it may feel weird at first, like, okay, yes, you have a line item in the budget. He has a line item in the budget. And it may feel weird at first.

Like, okay, we're going to up these dollar amounts. But you're going to be able to because you're going to have the margin once you're debt-free and you have that emergency fund in place to be able to do that. And so do it slowly over time because it's going to feel out of control if you're like, okay, let's just live on this and it's going to feel great and we're just going to go at it. That's a little bit where the insecurity can happen. Yes, absolutely. So just wade into it and get used to it.

And then also, Holly, making sure that you're upping your giving as well. And so the lifestyle can be upped a little bit and the giving and both of these things is going to really start to allow these new habits to form on how to handle and steward really what God has given you guys in an amazing way. But again, Holly, getting out of debt, that emergency fund, that needs to be first priority before anything else. But then to be able to say, hey, yeah, we each get some fun money and there shouldn't be guilt for that. Yeah. When you have a conversation and you're both represented in the budget, then you're putting on paper that you both have value in the budget.

And you do. And that's going to be a fun conversation now that you have so much more money. Absolutely. This is The Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, we have Brandon and Hannah with us. Welcome, you guys. Hi. Thank you. Hi. So you're standing on that special stage for one reason.

We sure are. What are you here for? We're here to do our debt-free scream. Yes. Amazing. Amazing. Okay. Where are you guys from? We're from Northwest Iowa. Okay. Iowa. And how much debt did you guys pay from? We're from Northwest Iowa. Okay. Iowa.

And how much debt did you guys pay off? We paid off $52,000. $52,000. Amazing. And what kind of income were you making during that time? We started at $95,000 and we ended currently at $105,000. Awesome. And how long did it take you?

18 months. 18 months. Oh, man, you guys. So what was the $52,000? It included a lot of things. Your normal student loans, vehicle loans. We had credit cards, a line of credit, different things like that. Pretty normal.

Normal. Pretty normal. A good variety. Yes. Not a good thing to be normal. That's right. That's right. What happened a year and a half ago?

What set you on this path? It was kind of a weird story i love weird stories go on hannah i'm here for it we love weird so it was around the same time that one of my um family members kind of sent me a message saying hey that there's this program at my church you know you and brandon should come to it you know it's called financial University. You know, here's the times and things like that. Well, the same day I came home and Brandon came up to me and he starts talking about this friend, Carl, who actually turned into our Financial Peace University coordinator, who is here today celebrating with us. So shout out to Carl. We're very appreciative of him. Yes. Okay. So then Brandon, how do you know Carl? What was the connection there?

He's actually a childhood friend. So as I grew up, he was a good friend with my dad. And I was familiar with his social media posts and stuff about it. So you just heard from him via social media? Yes. You saw something. Yep. And the same day, the stars aligned. God was like, all right.

We came home and he was like, hey, I have this, you know, Carl friend. He was telling me about FPU. And I was like, well, weird, because my cousin was just telling me about it. And we just jumped right in. Amazing. So you took the class. Yeah. You started down the journey.

Yeah. And what do you feel? What was the feeling like when you started it? Because obviously you both were on board, which is very impressive. You know, very, very helpful. So what were you feeling in your life and in your money and in your marriage 18 months ago? And then what's the difference standing on that stage today? Well, so 18 months ago, we were just engaged. So it was kind of something that we both, you know, heard about, talked about that week. And we were like, well, why not just start it now so that we

can, you know, roll into the marriage on, you know, the right foot and have everything set up for success. And I think, you know, our inspiration came from, you know, watching, you know, my family kind of have some financial issues and things like that. And, you know, maybe not being on the right page most of the time. And I think Brandon had some similar experiences. So we wanted to set ourselves up for success and being able to see that, you know, we wanted to be on up for success um and being able to see that you know we wanted to be on the right foot like i said um so just having you know everything ready not going into our first year of marriage which we're celebrating our anniversary this weekend we didn't want to be in debt so we wanted to be on the same page and be successful that's awesome

did starting the plan since you guys started when you were engaged, did it bring about some really interesting conversation? Like what you value and how you spend money and how you view money. I mean, this is what Rachel's book is about, Know Yourself, Know Your Money. Is that something? Because I think that's probably really cool to get to have those talks even before you walk down the aisle. Yeah. Yeah, we were definitely on the same page. You know, we obviously had rocky moments just like any relationship with finances and things like that.

But I don't think either of us wanted it to be a hindrance like it is for most relationships. You know, we were both honest with each other, whether or not we wanted to be, you know, there are some hard spots, like I said, but I don't know, I think just being on the same page, you know, it opened up a lot of conversations that we could get out of the way and just have clear air and just go about everything else. So Brandon, for you, what was the hardest part of that 18 months? At first, it was us being on the same page and then going to the class and kind of learning a little bit about it. But once we both learned about it, we both held each other accountable, which was the fantastic thing.

I think that Hannah, my wife, did a fantastic job throughout it. And I think that I kind of built off what she was doing. And then I learned a lot from her as well. It was a big thing for me. Yeah, that's awesome. But you guys planned a wedding. I mean, you had a wedding during this time. So talk me through that.

Because there's people out there that think, I can't have a wedding without going into debt. Or there's no way I can get out of debt and get married. I mean, you guys, you did both. Right. Yeah, we'll be honest with you. It was not easy. We cash flowed our wedding. So we were putting $600, $800 a month towards the wedding for six, eight months.

And then we ended up paying $12,000 to $15,000 somewhere in there for the wedding. We didn't have a huge wedding. We didn't have a small wedding, but it was a decent wedding. But it was perfect. Yeah, it was everything it needed to be. And we had help from my family as well. And we're so thankful for our family. We've had so many cheerleaders and friends and everything like that be there to back us up. We do have the occasional friend that's kind of like,

that's a little weird. You know, why are you doing this? But it is so worth it. And I just, I tell them what I can and we go about it and we just do our thing and it's so worth it. That's awesome. What do you say that, what do you say the key is? I know you said accountability, Brandon. What is the, in terms of a tactical thing that you guys did, what was what made you be able to last and finish the plan and actually become debt-free, do you think? In my opinion, I think it was the big picture. I think we think in the future for us, and we want our kids to see us be successful when we get older. We want to be debt-free. We want to be able to buy nice things without having to take out loans for it. I'm not a fan of borrowing money. I never have been.

So I think that the idea for us being financially stable, being on the same page, and I think it just correlates directly into our marriage. So that is the big thing for me. Absolutely. Well, it's powerful, you guys. I mean, I know you said it was difficult and there's hard spots and all of that, but I mean, I'm impressed you guys i mean they're like listen we came together one day had a conversation like we're signing up we're doing this okay we're gonna plan a wedding and get married in the middle of it we're gonna knock it out in 18 months i mean you guys just did it you were focused we were full on and we sold our truck i mean we sold our house um we did a lot of selling of personal property that we just didn't need um i've been kind of saying a couple of mantras to myself, you know, if it's not in my life,

then I don't need it, you know, kind of thing. And it's just kind of things to help me, you know, get through it. You know, I don't need that extra set of shoes that look really nice over there. You know, I would rather save that money for something that we need and things like that. So yeah, we sold the truck, um, the house, we picked up a lot of extra shifts. I know Brandon, the house. We picked up a lot of extra shifts. I know Brandon, he's picked up a lot of extra gigs, you know, doing security and things like that. And then extra hours, you know, I'm trying to shoot between 40 and 60 hours a week, just working and saving all the money. What do you guys do? I'm a deputy sheriff. Oh, cool. And I'm a veterinary

technician. Awesome. Okay. Very cool. Well done you guys. Well, and how old are you guys? I'm a veterinary technician. Awesome. Okay. Very cool. Well done, you guys. And how old are you guys? I'm 26 years old. And I'm 25. 26 and 25. And debt free. And debt free. Isn't that amazing, you guys?

Fantastic. It's unbelievable. There are so many people listening right now that just think, God, if I only did that in my early, mid-20s, how different things would be. And you guys are it. Like you said, you're setting up this legacy for your family to come and setting up this marriage where it's not a stress point. You're on the same page, and it's absolutely beautiful. I mean, you guys are textbook, exactly what it feels like,

selling stuff, picking up extra work. And you did it in 18 months, and now your entire lives are ahead of you, which is absolutely incredible. Well, congratulations, you guys. We've got a copy of the Legacy Journey for you and the Total Money Makeover for you to pass it on for someone else. So you can give that away. All right.

Brandon and Hannah from Iowa paid off $52,000 while making $95,000 to $105,000. Count it down. Let's hear a big debt-free scream three two one i love that they came home on the same day and go hey have you heard of financial peace university hey i've got this idea. They never struggled with the how do I get my spouse on board conversation. We spent some time talking about that today, and they never struggled with that. They came home on the same day with the same idea, and you're like, you mean this? Do you want to do this too?

It's beautiful. Yeah, no coincidences, we believe. That was a God timing for sure. That's exactly right. And I love what she said even too. you know, if it's not my life, I don't need it. And this process, it does something to you. When you start purging, selling stuff, not buying things that you just want in the moment,

stuff and what money plays in your life, it starts to change. You look at your life and yourself differently in a more healthy way, I think. Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh, well, congratulations again to Brandon and Hannah. Absolutely incredible. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Christy Wright and myself are here taking your questions.

And Christy, you've had some fun stuff happening. I feel like launching in the past. This has been the fall of Christy Wright. I was going to say, it's so great. I love it. There's a lot going on. We've got the Take Back Your Time book. Business Boutique is coming up. But the thing that I think people have been asking about the most because it's so calendar sensitive,

literally, is the goal planner. And y'all know I talk about this all the time, but trying to balance everything that you've got going on and reach your goals can be really, really hard. And so we love to give you tools where you can put your plans on paper. Research shows, by the way, that when you write something down, you're almost 50% more likely to do it. So I've got a tool for you. My new 2022 goal planner is here. This is our

fourth year doing it. Every year we order more. Every year they sell out. And no, we don't order more after they sell out because y'all, it's a calendar. It obviously is time sensitive. So when they sell out, they're gone. And you want to get one. It's going to help you manage your schedule, grow as a person. I've got content in there every single month that helps you focus on a different area of your life. We've got the monthly calendar, the weekly calendar, journal questions for reflection

and even tools and templates to help you do what I'm teaching you to do. So if you want to get your copy and I suggest you do, whether it's a Christmas present or for yourself, go to ramsaysolutions.com. They will sell out and you can get yours before they do.

Yeah, that's a great tool. I love hearing the feedback on these. Yes. People love them. Well, it's two things. Number one, it's just beautiful. It is beautiful. When you see it, you're like, oh, our design team painted it.

It's so good. It's so good. And then number two, I mean, the still writing it down. The tactical. It is so people, I mean, their planners are their life. And so this is it. And then it adds obviously so people, I mean, their planners are their life. And so this is it. And then it adds obviously so much stuff with the content and everything.

So absolutely amazing. All right. Michelle from North Carolina. Welcome to the show. Yes. Thank you. Absolutely. How can we help?

Yes. I was wondering how, what is a good amount besides the 15% to put away? What is a, I just bought a house a year ago, about a year and a half ago. Okay. And I'm fine. I have a car payment and a house payment. And I have a 16-year-old. And I'm a single mom.

Okay. So I'm just wondering, I know that uh-oh is going to happen. So I don't want to have it happen without being prepared. Absolutely. Michelle, are you new to listening to us? Actually, Mr. Ramsey had started me with my own business, so I wanted to thank him as well. Cool. I clean house for a living, and I work for someone else, and he said, well, you need to do more. So I went off on my own.

Wonderful. Good for you. So Michelle, do you have any savings, just cash in a savings account or anything? Do you have anything there? Yes. How much do you have saved? $15,000. You have $15,000 saved?

Yeah. Okay. And how much is the car loan? $264 a month. A month. How much is it total? How much do you owe is the car loan? $264 a month. A month. How much is it total? How much do you owe on the car? Oh, I see. Probably about $14,000.

About $14,000. Okay. Well, that is just perfect, Michelle. Yes. So... Oh. She's like, uh-oh. She says, no.

I know. Y'all are too excited about this. How much are you making cleaning houses, Michelle, per year, would you say? For the year, about $25,000. About $25,000. Okay. Well, you're in a great position, in a sense, when we talk about the baby steps, because you literally could knock out two baby steps when we get off the phone.

You can take that $14,000 you have saved, pay off the car, get that out of here, and then start saving not just 15%. So the 15% we save is for retirement, which is baby step four. So I want to back you up a little bit. After that car is paid off, baby step three is to save three to six months worth of expenses. And so I would say depending on, I mean, you're a single mom and I'm sure there's somewhat consistent income, but if I were you, I would lean toward that six month mark.

So that would be probably saving up, I don't know, for whatever that is for you. I'm guessing probably around 10,000 or so could be about six months worth of expenses. Especially because your income is dependent upon you running your business, where if you had a health situation, you couldn't work, you don't get paid. Whereas other people could take time off and still get paid. So that's a huge part of it.

Yeah, so I would say when we get off the call, Michelle, I would pay off the car. And then next paycheck, I would start stocking away money, slowly but surely, and save up for that six months. Right. And then from there, you can start saving for retirement, which is the 15% of your income. Which I'm already doing. I'm already doing that. Okay, so I would press... I'm getting there.

Yes, that's great. And if you want to look at the math, I would even press pause on that retirement while you save up that six months worth of expenses. Because the key here is as much as and it's only for a short period of time. You're not going to it's not going to take a long time, but for a short period of time, because as much cash as you can do to have some savings to build that savings fund back up as quickly as possible, it's going to set you up. Then you press play on retirement and you're going to actually have more money that you're going to be able to throw at retirement than you will even now. Michelle, how many hours a week roughly are you working? About 30.

Is it just you? Yes. Okay. I want you to stay on the line. I'm going to have Kelly send you a copy of my book, Business Boutique, and give you a ticket to the live stream event. I want to get your income up. I want you to be making more than $25,000 a year,

and then you're going to get to baby step four where you're investing a lot faster. You run your own business. You can and should be making more, and there's a good chance you're undercharging or there's some tweaks that you can make, and I want to help you do that. So stay on the line. We'll get you set up with the Business Boutique book, the Business Boutique Conference, which is coming up October 14th through the 16th. You can live stream it from your home and that will give

you some extra tools in your tool belt to get your income up to help you do exactly what Rachel's saying a little bit faster. Absolutely. All right. Next up we have Caleb in Utah. Hey, Caleb, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. How can we help? Well, my wife and I, we are on baby step two, and we're going through Financial Peace University, and we've realized that we want to make a little bit more income. And so I've been doing a wood business on my garage, built furniture, and I have about 10 customers on deck. And I go up to my wood supplier and realize that everything's about 50% more expensive.

And so the wood is more than the actual table for how much it actually costs to build. So anyway, I'm just trying to figure out the best way to tell my customers that I need more money or what the right way is to do that. Because really we're just trying, I have a full-time job as well as my side household. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to go about it and make money that way. Yeah, so Caleb, your situation is incredibly common, and everyone doing anything with building materials, whether it's homes or projects like what you're talking about, is experiencing this exact thing. So the first thing I want to tell you is, yes, you can pass on that cost increase to your customers. Yes, you should pass it on. And the great thing is you don't have to use i statements like i need because you actually don't need more money at all what you're

going to say is you're going to put it off on the vendor on the supplier because that's where it's originating it's not originating from caleb you're not increasing your price which even if you would and could you have a right to by the way even if it was just increasing um your prices but you just say it like that you say the cost of materials has gone up therefore the quote on this this project is xyz and don't apologize for it don't explain it don't justify it don't don't talk yourself out of it because sometimes we get nervous and awkward and so we just talk talk talk talk talk and we actually make something bigger than it is you literally just say the statement hey just want to let you know. If it's someone you already gave them a quote, let's say you give them a quote. That's what I was going to ask.

What would you do in that case? If you've already given them a quote, then you just need to come back to them and say, hey, the cost of materials has gone up. I don't know what the delay time is between when you give a quote and when you actually fulfill it, but you absolutely should still pass this on. When you go to Starbucks and the cost of coffee beans has gone up, we all pay it. Same thing. I have a friend building a house

right now and she locked in the contract on this house and then they came back around and said, hey, this disclaimer at the bottom, this clause, cost of materials has gone up. This is a very normal business practice because otherwise it's going to put you out of business. I know it's a side hustle, but you still have to have margin for your time,

your labor, and the work that you're doing. So yeah, you just pass it on. And the more you practice saying it, the easier it'll get. Yep, absolutely. And everyone knows that material. That's right. It's all over the news. Everyone knows it.

So great. Well, Christy, always fun co-hosting with you. I love it. I want to thank our producer, James Childs, and associate producer, Kelly Daniel, and you, America, for listening. This is The Ramsey Show. Have a friend or family member that needs a daily dose of Ramsey advice in their life? Let them know about the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast.

It's a quick hit of advice about life and money in under 10 minutes. Check out the Ramsey Call of the Day podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.