The Ramsey Show - App - My IRA Is Losing Money… Should I Pull Out? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 27, 2022

Rachel Cruze & Ken Coleman discuss: Dealing with the emotions of a down market, Providing as a single mom, The finances behind being a stay-at-home mom, Pausing investing to do home repairs. Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX 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, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm Ramsey personality, Rachel Cruz, hosting this hour with best-selling author and Ramsey Personality, Ken Holtman. So we are taking your calls at 888-825-5225.

We're talking about careers, your career, your money, your life. Yeah, like a big shuffle. How do you make more money? Well, getting promoted is one way. Changing jobs. You know, maybe you're in a toxic situation. So I'm here to answer any of those work questions. And Rachel's here on the money stuff.

And, of course, we have quite a few opinions on any relationship stuff as well. On all of it. I mean, we are married. Well, not married to each other. No. But we have kids. Yes. And you never know.

New people. I said we are married, and I was like, wait a second. We're not. We're married to other people. We have our spouses. We have spouses. So, you know, we can take on the marriage. Shout out to Stacey.

Stacey and Winston. How many years for you guys? Oh, 24 and a half. Thank you very much. Very nice. Yeah, I've got the Silvery Anniversary coming up next year. Yeah, you do. It's a big deal, Ken.

I may need to consult with you on the rock, you know? You've got to upgrade it at 25. Wow, really? Don't you think? Isn't that a thing? I didn't know there was an actual time frame, but. Well, 25 years. Stacy probably would be mad about it.

The woman deserves a lot, let's just be honest. Putting up with me for that long. My goodness gracious. So there you go. It can be done. That's right. How long have you and Winston been married? It'll be 13.

13, three kids. 13, three kids, yep. You're in the middle of it. That's right. How long have you and Winston been married? It'll be 13. 13, three kids. 13, three kids, yep. You're in the middle of it. We're brilliant. We know all the answers to everything. I'll tell you what we do know a lot of. Both of us, we both know what not to do. That's right.

So we can guide you from that standpoint. Learned some lessons. Yeah, boy, have we. All right, so first up here on the phones, we got Sheila in Pensacola. Welcome to the show. Hi. hi hello how can we help i am calling because i inherited uh our or our a account from my husband who passed from covid and i'm sorry last year oh and it is driving me nuts watching this account just go down i am not a gambler and i need to know where can i put this money to where it won't be losing and i won't be i won't have to pay any penalties or taxes or anything. Just put it somewhere safe.

Would a CD be good? Sheila, how old are you? I am 55. 55, okay. That's young. 55 years young, Sheila. Come on. So, Sheila, I want to...

Right now, I don't feel like it. I know, I know. Some days I don't feel as young as I am, but it is what it is. Hey, here's what I want you to hear. You just told Rachel and I that you're not a gambler. No. But if you pull that money out of that IRA, you are gambling. Because you've not lost any money in that IRA despite the balance that you're seeing

day in and day out. You've not lost any of that unless you pull it out. But right now, the stock market is in a true bear situation. It's a bear market and there's a lot of money on the sidelines because of interest rates going up and very smart money people who play the stock market, which affects your retirement account. It's real, but they're who play the stock market, which affects your retirement account. It's real, but they're just on the sidelines, right? I just saw an article today, trillions of dollars. I think it's $4 trillion of cash has been pulled out of the market recently and it's sitting there. It's going to come back. And what you have to do, and Dave has said this for years, Rachel, stay on the roller coaster. And right now that roller coaster is in a big dip, but it is going to come

back. I want you to look at it this way. Any money that you were to put in that, not to say that you are, but I'm looking at my 401k and I'm looking at it going, every time I contribute to that, in this bear market, I am getting stocks and those mutual funds at a deal. I'm getting them at a discount because when the roller coaster comes back up, Sheila, and it's going to, well, you're going to be sitting pretty. So my recommendation is stop looking at it every day and then play to who you really are

and you don't want to gamble. So don't pull that money out. That would be gambling. Yeah, and the taxes and everything else and the penalties that you'll have, Sheila, it's not worth it. is not worth it so ride the roller coaster uh warren buffett one of my favorite quotes he always says is that people make the worst money decisions when they're drunk or when they're afraid yep that's true and fear is a very and i understand that when you're looking

at the numbers you're like oh my gosh yeah but listen, I wouldn't, even at 55 years old, stay in it. Because just like Ken said, we believe in the American economy enough that it's going to come back. It may take time. It's going to take time. But wait it out. Because when it does, you're going to feel it again. And you're going to wish that 2022, Sheila, hadn't touched it because you're going to look up at 62, 65, 68 and have an IRA that your husband,

that I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry for your loss, passed to you that you're going to have that to be able to retire and to live off of the interest off of that. And so I would not put it in a CD. You're not going to make anything. Yes, it feels safe. were if you were older if you were 75 80 you know this could be a different discussion of what you do but you're still you're still young shelly you're 55 so you got some years

thanks for the call all right up next is bob in sacramento hey, welcome to the show. Thank you. Yes, how can we help? I am buying a house. The sale price is $530,000 is what we're paying, $530,000. Okay. My question is, I'm putting the proceeds from the house I'm selling, all of that proceeds into the down payment, I'm going to end up with about a $200,000 loan. I have about $337,000 in IRA and 401K, mostly all stocks that are all going south right now. My question is, am I better off paying that and knocking that loan down or not doing that because none of it is lost, so I'm going to have to pay taxes on it and penalties. No, no, no. You're fine. You've got a huge down payment on that house. You only have $200,000 left. You've been disciplined at this point.

You can pay that off. Sit on those stocks and mutual funds. Don't touch them. Let them continue to ride the roller coaster like our last caller. You're in the dip right now, and it's going to come back up. And, my goodness, that's a tremendous – congratulations. That's a tremendous down payment on a $530,000 house. Yeah, it's say, I mean, yeah, it's amazing. You know, I have a $200,000 loan. And rates are still historically low, even if they're a bit above six. I don't know what they

are today, but it's still, you know, you're in great financial shape with that down payment. Yeah. So Bob, no, I would not touch retirement. If these were just standard mutual funds, you know, then, or just you had single stocks or something you know we could look at a different option but no it's not worth cashing out retirement even though i appreciate your um intensity to to get this house paid off i still would not do not touch retirement to do it so thanks for the call this is the ramsey show The Ramsey Show. ДИНАМИЧНАЯ МУЗЫКА welcome back to the Ramsey show we are taking your calls at 888-825-5225. So when it comes to being intentional, having goals, knowing what you want in life, it can be really hard when you think, okay, I want to win with my money. I want to win in my relationships.

I want to have a better spiritual walk. But if you don't have the right tools, if you don't have the right guidance, it can be very difficult to either set those goals or to follow through with them. So that's why I am so excited to introduce the new 2023 Ramsey Goal Planner. So this is beautiful, number one, the cover of it. It's very sturdy. Do you see that gold? You could kill a person with this. Do you see that gold?

It's so heavy, so meaty. Just gorgeous, just gorgeous. It is very nice. But me, George Camel, and Dr. John Deloney have new monthly teachings here in the Ramsey Goal Planner to help you when it comes to your

financial goals, your relationship goals, and your spiritual goals. And you get everything. You get monthly check-ins, you get the calendar, everything that a good planner has. And those of you that love planners will love this one. So make sure to check it out. They always sell out quickly every year.

But you can get yours at ramseysolutions.com slash planner. So you got your monthly view. And then you got your daily view. You got some teaching from each of you. Yes. Some notes. I can tell you what I like about it. The tabs. Ah, you're a tab guy. I can tell you what I like about it, the tabs.

Ah, you're a tab guy. I'm a tab guy. Yeah, love a good tab. I've always loved a Bible that had the tabs. Oh. Do you know what I mean? So good. And boy, it's just very easy.

And it is sturdy. My goodness. That's got some- Know what you need, I know. Do we know how much this weighs? Do I? It's very impressive. It's a hefty thing.

My point in saying that is, that's not your flimsy- Little calendar. Paper calendar. No. That you get at the convenience store. Do they sell those at the convenience store? I'm struggling right now. I don't know.

You're back in the 80s. Wow. You know what I almost said? You just went. I almost said dime store. That would have thrown you for a loop. You went 60s, 70s on me, kid. Man.

Yeah. It's 2022. Yeah, you go get yourself a milkshake and a loop. You went 60s, 70s on me, kid. Man. Yeah. 2022. Yeah, you go get yourself a milkshake and a planner. Sit at the old booth. Sit at the counter. The Five and Dime store. Do you even know what that is? No, I don't.

Never heard of it before in her life, folks. No, I've heard of it. I just, I don't know if I. I'm trying to keep it old school for her, folks. You always do that. There's a guy in the lobby that appreciates the Five and Dime comment. That's your spiritual gift, Ken. It bringing us back. Something old. Something old and something new. Oh gosh. All right. Next up we have Brittany in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Hey Brittany, welcome to the

show. Thank you guys. I'm so grateful you took my call. So my question kind of boils down to how to provide best for my five kids. I recently, in the last couple of years, have become a single mom. Support has been cut off. It's been more and more increasingly difficult to co-parent with my ex. And I had a side business that I had built up to just kind of help my family out over the last few years. Brought in $12,000 last year, but now I have to be a fully supported single mom. I no longer get to homeschool my kids. That's a bit of a struggle. But my current job, I make $16 an hour. Um, I am grateful for the opportunity. It was a former client of mine from my other business who knows how important my business is and wanted to give me that opportunity to be able to take a day

off to continue building that, that for my children. But,, but I'm just struggling with trying to figure out the next step or how best to provide. Can I ask you what your business is, the side business? Okay, so I am a professional organizer. In my current job, I am a fire and flood restoration technician. Okay, and what do you make as an organizer? Is it by project? Is it hourly or both? It's hourly. I currently make $50 an hour in my site business. Forgive my ignorance. Is this organizing people's closets, pantries, houses, garages? It's anything. Oh, anything. 90% of what I do is actually, I consider it the psychological emotional side of it because I have a very strong philosophy. If you need me to come back six months from now, I failed you.

Oh, wow. So I do not have the same mentality that some of my organizer friends have. Sure. I want to get them from top to bottom, front to back. If we go through everything you own, you should not need me again. Your house should work for you to such a degree that you never need somebody else. So I think you're the perfect person to get out of this situation you're in. Obviously, there's some deadbeat stuff going on from your ex and not paying support and all that stuff.

We can't fix that. We can't control that. So we've got to focus on what you can control. And a person like you that is a professional organizer and helping others understand organization, you're really well equipped for this. I want to start with that encouragement. But I want to look at not just your income. I want Rachel to help you through maybe what your expenses are and she can really help you with that. But I am curious to know if you feel like that you're able to make another $12,000 or maybe more with this day off from your

former customer. I'm curious about that. Do you feel like you could still make $12,000 on the side or even more with your current schedule and responsibilities? It takes more. I can't. Most of my organizing gigs are during the week, during the day, which is when my current job is. Of course. So the answer is you're limited. Okay. So are you able to do that? You're using that day off to do it? I am taking, what I do is if I get a client, then I take a day off from my current job. I just tell them, hey, I won't be in tomorrow. Hey, I won't be in Thursday. And they've been very understanding. But my only current way to get clients at this point is Thumbtack.

And I haven't had a lot of traffic there. Okay, so I want Rachel to help you on budgeting and spending and all that. I want to transfer you to her, but I would say this. You, with your abilities, your skill set and experience, you should be making more than $16 an hour, and one of the things I want to challenge you on is in our current economy, I mean, we're talking about Target and Walmart just to use two big box examples are paying people at starting rates of 19 20 21 22 dollars an hour and and I think that's what you've got to be doing as a single mom with five babies you've got to be doing everything you can to bring in the most income in to get financially to a place where maybe we can

come back to that business. And I want to encourage your heart to say, if you've got to press pause on this side business for a season, it is a season, not a sentence. It is not dead. It's not over. It's not gone forever. I want to encourage your heart on that. Yeah. And to be in a spot, Brittany, because it's a pretty unique thing that you have the flexibility of your current job to be able to kind of call in and say, hey, I'm going to take tomorrow off because you're able to get paid $50 an hour at this other gig and you can kind of swap so if there's another situation that you pay more than $16 an hour so again kind of what Ken was saying the the big box stuff so whether it's Walmart or Target or something if there is another option career-wise you get paid more per hour and still

have that flexibility to pull in that side job because it's paying you so much that's ideal so are you uh Brittany are you guys are you behind on any bills right now are you current with your debt tell me kind of your situation I'm currently living in an unstable housing situation, which I am actively working daily trying to find a new one. I could be homeless by the 15th, but I'm not sure about that yet. What's that? Okay. So the house is in my ex's and my name. Okay.

But unfortunately, some legal stuff, the judge, the judge has declared that I am now responsible for everything. He hasn't been paying child support, which would help towards that. So if I don't pay by the 5th, I am homeless by the 15th. Is this an apartment, mortgage, or just a rent? A house, a mortgage on the house. Okay. So I don't want you behind on that so for you and the kids you do do you have the income to pay it or you you don't right now um at this point i do not

have what he says i owe which there is a debate he's he's behind months and he's saying that i owe him 5 000 in order to stay in the house, and that's not feasible. So I am working through that with my lawyers. We're going to get you connected to one of our financial coaches as our gift because they can walk you through the minutiae and detail that we cannot on this phone call. So hang on the line. We're going to get you connected. FPU, everything that we can give you right now to help you out.

Hang on, Mama Bear. You're going to get through this. We're going to get you connected now to help you out. Hang on mama bear. You're going to get through this. We're going to get you connected to one of our financial coaches. Thanks for calling. in the lobby of ramsey solutions on the debt-free stage we have Adam and Jennifer welcome you guys hey guys thanks for having us absolutely where you guys from we're from Muscle Shoals Alabama awesome well I guess you're on the stage for one reason and one reason only that's right that's right we're gonna do a debt-free scream today debt-free congratulations you guys we're excited okay so how much debt did you pay off 150 000 nice making what kind of income during that time like 160 to 220 how long did it take by the way that was over about five years and 10 months five years 10 months and what was the debt it was our house it was our house did it all

you're completely debt free completely debt free amazing you guys so what happened five five and a half years ago that made you think ah we want we want to pay off our house so that was how long we've had our house for that was when we bought our house um in fall of 2016 and our debt-free journey actually started in 2013 yeah um that's when we got married. We graduated with student loans of about $200,000. And we actually, in early 2016, finished paying those off and did a debt-free scream at the old studio. And so when we bought our house, we knew we didn't want debt forever. We didn't want a 15-year mortgage even. So we made a commitment to paying it off early. And we didn't know how long that would be, but we stayed diligent and just paid off as we could.

And here we are, you know, 70 months later, and we're debt-free again. Second time. Second time. So you guys got some experience. It's just a new building, new stage. We've done this before. Yeah, we had to come check out the campus,

and I said, we're going to go do another debt-free scream and i mean yeah i didn't have to convince her very much to uh to come back so i love it yeah so we do celebrate people that can't pay off all their consumer debt and then some people either come back which i don't know if we've had many repeats this is pretty fun or people just do the whole thing and they come do their debt-free scream and the mortgage is paid off. So I'm curious for you guys, what's the difference in the feeling of paying off all that student loan and the consumer debt and that versus paying off your mortgage? It is different. The journey itself was different too because the first round was so intense.

We were very gazelle intense. Everything that we made went to our loans. Where this time it was more over the long haul and so the diligence and consistency of we weren't seeing those huge chunks going at it every single month like our student loans because we had other things going on we had two kids in that time we upgraded two cars we We had retirement savings. You know, that four, five, and six is slower. So it's a little bit more of that slow and steady feeling. What was your down payment on that house?

It was about $40, I think. Our house at the time was $194 when we bought it. Oh, wow. Good for you. Amazing, you guys. Okay, so what was the hardest part of paying off your house? Because people are hearing that and they're thinking, that's how old are you guys you're we're 35 35 and not a house payment yeah incredible yeah i think the hardest part would probably be um not letting that

life creep you know come in there and and also like jennifer said but the um student loans we had you know it was really you'd get you know having that reward of of getting those big payments every month and even you know over the five years and 10 months there were plenty of months when we didn't have much extra to go towards the house and so not we had to just kind of encourage each other more and um there weren't really it was more slow but even even the slow version was still, we had to zoom out a lot and be like, hey, this is awesome.

We're really, you know, we're doing a great thing here, and this is not, you know, normal, like we say, like you guys always say. This is not, this is, we're weird. I think we've been doing the Ramsey way for so long, we've kind of forgotten that it's not normal. Like for us, this is what we've been doing the the ramsey way for so long we kind of forgotten that it's it's not normal like for us this is what we've been doing pretty much our whole marriage um but there's people out there just getting started who are just trying to figure it out um so we just

that's why we wanted to come back to be an encouragement to those people that you know are just getting started um that need to hear that it can happen um and we were just thinking back how you know we couldn't be here with a paid off house if we hadn't done the work back several years ago. If we hadn't paid off our student loans, then we certainly wouldn't be here. We probably could have bought a house then and been $400,000 in debt then

and wouldn't have been anywhere. Right, and the financial side of that, you're exactly right. And I think the emotional side, the character qualities, what is built within you when you go and pay off consumer debt and you sacrifice everything y'all were talking about it was so intense all that sacrifice that same type of of motivation there right like that that changes who you are yeah so when you lead into baby steps four five six and seven as we're talking about that like that is a slower pace and so so we tell people, you know,

you can kind of let your foot off the gas. We kind of said last night, we said you kind of go from that intensity to consistency, you know, and it's just. Oh, that's good. All right, hold on. That's really good. I knew that was tweetable. I knew that was good.

That was absolutely a tweet right there. That is fantastic. And I have a follow-up question on that. That's really, really good. How much did the previous journey allow you to be so automated the way you kind of described? Yeah. I mean, we already had our budget in place.

And it took a lot more tweaking and talking about once we finished that first section. But we had the budget in place. We had our communication in place. You know, that's been a part of our marriage this whole time is being on the same page about our money and and that was huge starting out our marriage that way and we've just really kind of built on that this whole time for sure yeah i gotta ask how much is that house worth you think about 290 come on now how does that feel big it feels good it feels really good only about a month or two into it. I think it hasn't set in yet even.

Yeah, for sure. We're still just now figuring out what do we do now? What does our budget look like now that we don't have that? Did you guys take your shoes off and do what Dave says all the time? I wonder how many people actually go out and feel the grass. Oh, yeah. We did. We did.

Does it feel different? I need to know. I think people want to know. It feels a little bit different. It does. It feels good. It feels good. All yeah all right that's amazing and you guys killed it i mean within five years because most people on average doing this it's about seven years to pay off the house is what we see so you guys and that's what we kind of thought it probably would be like seven or eight years you know we weren't really like pushing it real hard but then um like i said we

had two kids in that time that kind of of closed things down. Kiddos and cars. So great. Well, congratulations, you guys. Thank you so much. What's the secret when it comes to paying off your house? It's hard to put it just in one thing. I think just consistency, like we said. I think everyone says it, but the budget.

You really have to know what you're spending to know then where it can go and how you can cut back especially now I mean we look at our grocery budget right now and you just I mean when the groceries are so expensive at the store you wouldn't even notice if you didn't have a budget to notice how much more you're spending right now um so that really helps you stay consistent every single month looking at it and seeing where your money's going i love it i know everybody says it but it's no it's true it's true yeah the more you focus on the budget then you can start to see the hope in the situation and see the progress you're making then that's right then you know what's left over and you

know exactly what you're doing with that leftover money well you guys are are absolutely incredible so impressive mid-30, no debt at all, not even a mortgage payment. So bring up the two little ones. Yeah, bring them on up. You guys ready? Who do we have? What are their names, names and ages?

This is Brooks, and he's four and a half, and this is Elise, and she's two and a half. Oh, I like her. She's got a little juice up there. Oh, man, yeah. A little pep in her step. All right, you guys ready? Absolutely amazing. All right, you guys ready? Absolutely amazing.

All right, so we have Adam and Jennifer, Brooks and Elise from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Paid off $150,000, which includes their house, making $160,000 a year. Did it in five years. All right, you guys. Okay, Brooks, you ready? Count it down. Let's hear your debt-free scream. Three, two, one.

We're debt-free! Amazing. Absolutely incredible. So cute. It's possible. It is possible. That's what it's so... You know what's fun?

You look at those two little ones, Brooks and Elise, who's... I'm her new number one fan, by the way. Yeah, you love her. I love her. She's fantastic. But those kiddos have no idea the sacrifice and then the unbelievable future they have, the legacy that mom and dad is going to be, they will be passing on to them. That's why we do the show for families like that.

So cool. The example, too. Morris, Coth and Tot and those kids. The house that they're growing up in is incredible. Parents that took control. Congratulations, you guys. In America, it's possible for you to make the decision to do something different. This is The Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Today's question from blinds.com.s.com 100 satisfaction guaranteed 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 today's question comes comes from Shirley in Wisconsin. How do you feel about women being stay-at-home moms and not bringing in an income after they have a baby? Do you feel like that is an unwise financial decision? First of all, I think it's fan-freaking-tastic. I think it's the greatest role in the world to be a mom, to be a full-time mom, stay-at-home mom, however you want to define it. My wife has been a stay-at-home mom for large portions. There have been seasons where she has worked. And so into that second part of the question, do you feel like that is unwise as

a financial decision? The answer is no, because there are other decisions, other lifestyle choices that we make that causes to have financial stress. But to be a stay-at-home mom, the act of being a stay-at-home mom is not an unwise decision in any way. Now, if you've got to change some financial things that you've done, but that's something you did previous to a little one on the way. So I think i hear the spirit of this rachel and just as a male i wanted to sound off just to say um you know i hope no one ever looks down at that role um it's an important season and uh no one should shame a mom for wanting to work at home uh because that's what it is it is working at home i mean it's not like you're eating bonbons and watching. Stay at home, mom. Always just like, yeah. I'm like, oh my God,

you're not staying anywhere. You are running around still. Well, would you add to that as a professional mom? Yeah, I mean, I would say you're saving on childcare. Yeah.

Think about all, I mean, there was a study that was run and it was basically like all of the mileage the average mom drives, the food that she cooks, the house that she cleans,

all the childcare provide, all of it. And it's like $1.2 million or something. If you were to outsource all of that, which I know people don't do that. The errands that Stacey runs for us. All of it. Not just for me, but for us. You hold your family together. I mean, it is so. I think that Stacey is the CEO of the Coleman household.

Yes. And I have no problem saying that. Oh, for sure. I don't feel weak. I don't feel less than. I mean, she's the chief executive the Coleman household. Yes. And I have no problem saying that. Oh, for sure. I don't feel weak. I don't feel less than. I mean, she's the chief executive officer. That's right. There is no question about that.

Now, we do. So it's fascinating, too, the whole stay-at-home, a little bit of the discussion when it comes to money and even when you talk about debt, because there are a lot of moms where their motivation to get out of debt is to go home. Because they're like, if I don't have these bills, I don't need my income. And then for other people, while they're getting out of debt, a stay-at-home mom may say, hey, I'm going to go work part-time to make some income to get out of debt even faster, right?

So, like, there's always seasons of life regardless. But no, as this, if there's a black and white question of, is it an unwise decision when it comes to finances? No. Or family. No. In fact, it's a gift. It is a huge gift. question of is it unwise a funny unwise decision when it comes to finances no or family no in fact it's a gift it is a huge gift so um thanks for the question though shirley all right going to the phones at this hour we have jared in birmingham hey jared welcome to the show hey guys how are you we're doing well how can we, good. Well, my wife and I have been working the baby steps, and we just moved into our first house in July.

Nice. Congratulations. Yeah, it's been great. We've enjoyed it. However, the past week, we developed a leak in our crawl space. Oh. And we've had Water Restoration Company and Insurance Adjusters already come out and basically determined that they're going to have to pull up all of our hardwoods and do a lot of renovation to the home. Where did the water come from?

It came from a hot water heater. Basically, the copper pipe eroded, and there was a leak for a little while, and it did quite a bit of damage while and they didn't catch it in inspection or anything? They didn't catch it. And it has ruined your hardwoods? Or your floor? Most of our hardwoods

have buckled up. They've basically determined that they're going to replace all the hardwoods throughout the whole house. This is just for America. Can we just stop for a second? This is for America. When someone's like, I just wants throughout the whole house. Okay. This is just for America. Can we just stop for a second? Jared, we're going to get to your question. This is for America. When someone's like, I just want to go buy a house.

I just want to go buy a house. It's cheaper than renting. Da, da, da. This is what happens to homeowners. You get this crap, and it is expensive. To own a home is freaking expensive. So, Jared, I am so sorry this has happened to you. No, it's okay.

This is why homeownership, it's great. And when you're in a financial position to do it yes i would do it but this is why you don't need to go buy a house when you're living paycheck to paycheck with no savings in the bank because you're freaking what could happen this is it this is exactly what happens but jared it is going to be okay yeah you're fine i'm using this as a teaching lesson yeah she's not trying to pour salt on your wound i'm not i'm not but but you feel it so what's the question, Jared? How can we help? Well, my quick question, what's your out-of-pocket then on this?

So our out-of-pocket will be a $3,000 deductible. So we've got about four months in our emergency funds, maybe five months. Which is how much? So it's about $18,000 right now. So what's your question? Really, the question is like we're really excited about getting into investing and you know baby steps four five and six um but you know with this situation going on we felt like we held off on investing for so long we're just wondering should

we just kind of keep hold out and keep stacking up cash for the emergency fund or would it be okay to go ahead and get started with um some investing and just work through this whole process while investing? Or should we just hold off for a couple more months? No, I would be investing because you have an emergency fund for emergencies. Can you cash flow this or is this an emergency for you? No, I mean, we can probably even cash flow this throughout this process, or we could just dip a little bit into the emergency fund to take care of it. Yeah. That's what I would do.

I would not stop investing because you guys have enough margin here with the emergency fund and you being able to cashflow it. No, I wouldn't pause. I understand the hesitation of like, Oh God, this could be expensive. And you know,

we're going to put money investments, but you guys are in a great spot, Jared. This is why, this is why you do what you do with the emergency funds and everything. And being out of debt, you have margin with your income so no i would not pause investing i would keep doing that and uh you guys use the emergency fund too if you need to this is what's funny yeah people emotionally i don't like using i don't like either that's what my answer was i just have to admit i'm

like well if you can cash flow it yes i hate the emergency fund but but but this But this is a broader question. We have a lot of new people always watching and listening to the show. So for new folks, I actually, Jared, hang on. I want to ask Rachel to talk about this. What defines the emergency? Because in this situation, he's saying we probably can cash flow, but that would be, Jared, I'm guessing that's a pretty sizable budget adjustment in order to cash flow is that true right right yeah and see that's what i want to ask you you've been teaching this longer so now does that make an emergency when he's got to make that big of a budget adjustment for me an

emergency is always when it's unplanned right and it's unexpected well that's this is it and this is it i mean this is this is truly when you're like, oh my gosh, this came up. What's wrong with me? Why do I not want to touch the emergency fund? And I don't either. So if I was Jared and we could cash flow it, I wouldn't touch it either. And I would just say, hey, I'll cut back on the budget. That's what I would want to do.

Because you can cut back for two, three months, whatever it is for you guys, Jared, just to cash flow. Because you're going to have to go and fill the emergency fund backup. So either way, you're going to be moving your budget. So I would rather have the pain in the present and just do it, not touch the emergency fund. That's true. But if he needs it. It's there.

If he needs it, it's there, right? Like if this came in as a $6,000, then I'd be like, man, can you cash flow three, pull three out of the emergency fund, you know, kind of figure it out. And Jared, we only got about 60 seconds, but I want America to hear, how does it feel emotionally? Because this sucks, but to have the money and not be stressed out

beyond the fact that it sucks, how does that feel? It felt great. I mean, my wife and I, we just like looked at each other like, of course this would happen, like just moving into the house. But then we just had,

we had so many moments, you know, where we're just like, hey, this is why we've, you know, worked this process through the whole time with Dave Ramsey's, like, the plan. So, you know, just like the stress of the money is just kind of out of the equation and it's just an inconvenience, you know. That's right. It takes a crisis in terms of inconvenience. Now you get to focus on new hardwoods.

Yeah. Yay! And that's the whole thing, right? Would you maybe cash flow some, you know, new hardwoods and maybe upgrade Yay! Would you maybe cash flow some new hardwoods and maybe upgrade the quality a little bit maybe?

Within reason. Within budget. Abso-freaking-lutely I would. I wouldn't dip in the emergency fund for that specifically to upgrade.

That's right. But if you guys had the cash flow to be able to upgrade and it's something else you want, yeah, you get to pick some new

finishes, Jared. That's an exciting part. See, I knew you would step up. I didn't know how to say it. That was beautiful. Thank you. That's exciting. Hey, you get to pick some new finishes, Jared. That's an exciting part. See, I knew you would step up. I didn't know how to say it. That was beautiful. Thank you. That's exciting.

Hey, make it a date night. Head on over to your local hardwood dealer and make mama happy. You know, let her pick out a good one. Thanks for hosting with me. Thanks to James, Ben, Zach,

Andrew, Austin, everyone there in the booth. Thank you, America, for listening. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, folks, Ken Coleman here. Did you know The Ramsey Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world? Get your daily dose of advice on life and money. Check out all of our shows

from The Ramsey Network wherever you listen to podcasts.