The Ramsey Show - App - My Wife Hid Credit Cards From Me (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 21, 2021

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🎵 🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. Thank you for joining us. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. Chad starts off this hour in Provo, Utah. Hi, Chad. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, John and Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So my question is, we're fairly new to the Baby Steps. We've known about them for a long time, but we're currently on Baby Step number two. We own a duplex that we used to live in, and if we were to sell that,

we would be able to go straight from Baby Step 2 to Baby Step 4, 5, and 6. But I do have a few reservations about that. And so I'm just wondering, what would you do in my situation? We don't recommend folks sell their homes to get out of debt unless they're going to sell them anyway. We do. We own another home that we live in currently. So we used to live in this duplex. Oh, so it's a rental.

It's a rental now. We moved out about five years ago and held on to it. The plan was to just keep it and use it as an investment property. Okay. And so how much debt do you have? Let's see. Currently about $75,000. What's your household income?

Household income is around $90,000. Okay. About $95,000 with the income from the property. Let's just take a set of scales and put the rental house on one side of the scales and the number of years that it's going to take you to pay off 75 000 making 90 which is two years okay uh no more than that so do you want to fast forward your get out of debt plan by two years badly enough to sell the duplex there's not really a wrong answer here because you can get out of debt fast enough. If you want to keep it, you can keep it. But you might want to be out of debt more than you want the duplex, and that would be

not a wrong answer too. Right. And that's kind of what we're looking at. One of the things that we have going on, my wife works as a cosmetologist hairdresser, and so she's taken a hit this year here in Utah. She's been able to work, but anytime she is feeling under the weather or a client is feeling under the weather, they basically have to cancel. So income goes down there.

Also, we have a daughter that last year was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and so we're fully funding our HSA, so that takes some of our money there. So do you want to sell the house? I kind of do. Some of the reservations I have are, you know, it would be nice to be out, move on, be in, you know, those later steps. But possibly, you know, having that physical asset that is kind of a hedge against inflation, and we don't know what all the printing of money is going to do, whether or not there's going to be some major inflation that goes with that. Okay, all the things that you know about your life and all the things that you perceive about the future, which of these two avenues gives you the best life and the most wealth

10 years from today? And that, I don't know. I go back and forth. I can tell. But that's how you're going to have to answer the question. Okay. You know, every decision has some pluses and minuses. There are a few decisions that don't have some minuses.

And you can make a list of the pros and the cons on keeping the duplex, a list of the pros and cons on selling the duplex and getting out of debt. I think I hear that the reasons that you bought, that you wanted to own real estate in the first place are the only reasons you're trying to keep it, even though your whole situation has changed. And you stuck with your old, I think you stuck with your old reasoning and you're trying to use that in your current reasoning. And so I think you're stuck with your old reasoning, and you're trying to use that in your current reasoning. And so I think you're selling the duplex. But I'm okay, Dave Ramsey's okay with you doing either one. If you want to roll up your sleeves, buckle down in the midst of the diabetes, in the midst of the irregular income, in order to hold on to it and fight through the debt and get rid of it in the next two years and be on beans and rice for two years.

There's nothing wrong with doing that. It's not against our plan, you know. So you go do what you want to do. And, again, I'm somebody who would want to sleep at night. And knowing my daughter's clear, the irregular income, we can weather that because I don't owe anybody anything in the world, right? But I think it comes down to a risk tolerance, right? And a beans and rice. I find this

a lot that, especially people who tend to be more anxious, tend to be more control oriented. Man, you can project into the unknown, mysterious future, any number of wild scenarios, man. And they can paralyze you

in the present. And you just got to sit down and make some decisions once you make it go for it yeah i think you're selling it because i think you're going to get more peace that way and i think you're probably going to end up with more money that way at the end of the day and are we going to have hell to pay with all these trillions of dollars yep right someday we are who knows i mean i'm i have a lot of people in my world i world, when they get to the end of their career, they write the world's coming to an end book. Of course. And I'm not going to write that book. I promised myself long ago.

So the world is going to come to an end, but I will not be predicting it. And that includes all of this ridiculous debt that Congress has continued to pile up my entire life, and it's unbelievable. And, yes, eventually there's going to be some kind of a reckoning. But give yourself peace now. I remember reading the book Bankruptcy 1984. No, 1994. 1994. That was a book that came out.

It scared you to death? Yeah. I thought the whole, well, I mean, it was a scientific, detailed, economic, with proven great economic minds that the hockey stick of debt was going to crash the economy in the year 1994. Probably can't even find a copy of that book now. No. You can. There's one on my shelf. I kept it because I wanted to remember not to write that book.

I think it was Nassim Taleb that says, everybody's throwing darts backwards and somebody hits, and they turn into the hero of the super predictor of the world, right? Yeah. Eventually, enough people throw a dart backwards. You're going to, told you so, and you can never do it again. Yeah. It's not a repeatable act right

so um anyway all that to say um if i woke up in your shoes what would i do i love rental property probably more than you do and i would sell it because i would want the freedom faster and it just because you sell this rental property doesn't mean you can't save up and pay cash for another rental property later in a lot more rental property later in your journey. With a lot more peace, right? Later in your journey, and it's not like you're going to lose the ability to ever own hard assets or ever own dirt and bricks and mortar. If I were in your shoes, I'd be done with it. But as a matter of course on the show and giving advice, I don't.

If it was a car, I'd sell it in a heartbeat. But it's a rental property, and there's some reasons to continue to fight for it if you want to. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. 2021 is finally here, which means 2020 is over. And now you get to decide how this year goes. Rachel Cruz's new book, Know Yourself, Know Your Money, is also finally here, and this book will help guide you to faster progress with your money, no matter which baby step you're on. For years, we've taught you that personal finance is 20% head knowledge and 80% behavior. This is the book for helping you grow and control your behavior. Know Yourself, Know Your Money goes beyond the baby steps and gets to the root of your money choices and mistakes.

2020 probably gave you a pretty clear view at what your personal money fears are. This book will help you channel those into a healthy money mindset so you can make 2021 a year worth celebrating. Get your copy of Know Yourself, Know Your Money today at the online store at DaveRamsey.com or call our Ramsey concierge team at 888-227-3223. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today here on the air. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. They have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. It means even if you mismeasure or you pick the wrong color, they'll remake your window blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Use the promo code RAMSEY to get the best possible deal. Today's question comes from Lisa in Kentucky. She writes, my husband and I are debt free. The house that we live in was purchased as a gift to us from his parents.

The house is completely paid for. However, there's always a however, Dave. The house is not in our name. I do not feel secure without the house being in our name. We have a great relationship and I trust my in-laws, but I have an issue with this. What should I do? So my first thought here, Dave, is if somebody buys a house for you and gives it to you, but it's not in your name, it's not your house. Is that a poor way to look at that? No but it's not in your name it's not your house is that a poor way to look at that no it's not it seems like they bought a house and letting you live in it yeah there's not it's not a gift right until it's in your name there you go so is it out of line here to have that

conversation yeah i and i think the way you always have a conversation like that is it's very very important to put a lot of icing on the cake before you start talking about this and the icing a lot of sweetness yep and that's gratitude absolutely how grateful you are and i would never want to seem ungrateful and we're not ungrateful and we are so thankful and so forth um it does make us uncomfortable that it's not in our name and we want to know when we're going to get it into our name or we're getting a will done and we need to make sure all these assets flow in a certain place yeah that's fine but but bottom line is is that this is weird yeah i would not give my kids a house and leave it in my name okay and it's just because then it's not their house it's not their house yeah i mean let me give you an example okay um her father-in-law is uh working second shift and he

falls asleep at the wheel and he uh goes across the center line hits somebody and a kid is killed on the other car they're taking that house too they're taking that house that's right because it's his asset when they sue him for 500 million dollars the judgment lien will be on the house that is not hers right and that's called an accident right that i described absolutely say the father-in-law did anything wrong no i didn't call him a drunk he wasn't drunk driving i didn't call him anything i didn't say anything negative about him right but it's just you know he could you know he could have a business go bad and get an irs lien and guess what the irs lien is on all of his assets all right and this house is his asset not hers right so and the other piece of advice i would just give you is um uh you don't talk let

your husband talk it's his parents you can sit there with a smile on your face, and the only thing you're allowed to say is how grateful you are. I want you to know how grateful you are. You're not allowed to make body language or grimaces or words that are part of this conversation that has at its essence conflict in it. Because you're going to get labeled as the cause of it ah you're going to be labeled as the dissension but in the family yeah right yeah the evil uh it would have been okay if it's my son but his wife got involved there you go so they say something along the lines of well we will we're not comfortable doing that now but we will in my head i immediately switch to this isn't our

house we are living rent free in my parents house we now are saving up for our own place yep and then i'm off to the races there exactly i'm gonna use a little sleep over it thanks for the free rent there you go and i'm gonna use that to save up and buy my own house i'm not gonna throw a fit about it i'm not gonna whine about it we're gonna go buy ourselves a house yeah well you said it was a gift we're moving on we're moving on we're just going to look if you're not going to put it in my name it's not a gift you got to have that clear logic in your head so the other thing about this lisa is is that you want you need to hear loud and clear from john we're saying you're right absolutely yes you're right you're not crazy this

has got some weirdness on it there's something weird here and i don't know what it is there may be a simple thing that they've they haven't had good tax planning that nobody showed them how to do it without getting in without getting a gift tax bill because you know if they'll see a good tax planner they can teach them how to do uh to transfer an asset that size as a gift without having any gift tax under the unified estate gift tax credit and Unified Estate Gift Tax Credit. And it's one piece of paper with their filing of their taxes this year, and unless they have an estate over $20 million, it won't affect their estate taxes a dime.

So there's lots of ways to do this. They may just not know how to do it, but if that's the only reason, but I'm going to guess and say that's not the reason. I know. Something about this feels icky, Dave. Yep. Yep. Yep.

Yep. But it is the daughter-in-law asking. Right. Isn't it interesting that the son didn't ask the question? He's the guy I want to talk to in this. Yeah. Because he's the one going to have to do the talking. Right.

If this is handled properly. He needs to deal with his mama, not his wife dealing with his mama. Yes. Because I can just tell you, this is how this is needs to deal with his mama not his wife dealing with his mama yes because i can just tell you this is how this is going to go down do you feel like paying off your debt is going to take forever well it's a new year and paying off your debt won't take forever we can show you how we do it all the time it's what we do here ramsey plus is where you get out of debt faster you'll become debt free you'll be spending money without worry you're going to be building wealth you're going to be outrageously generous. And we're going to show you how to do all of it. There are three apps that work

together to help you pay off your debt as fast as possible. Of course, that includes Financial Peace University. Of course, that includes the Baby Steps Tracker. Of course, that includes Every Dollar Premium. Of course, it includes a whole bunch of other stuff. We're going to show you step-by-step, day-by-day what to do for the first 90 days.

And you get a free trial at Ramsey Plus by texting TRIAL to 33-789. TRIAL to 33-789. Jackson is in Oklahoma City. Hey, Jackson, what's up? Hi there. How's it going? Better than I deserve. How can I help? So I'm going to be moving to Florida in two days.

I currently live in Oklahoma. I'm going to be doing to Florida in two days. I currently live in Oklahoma. I'm going to be doing work for my girlfriend's parents. They own a roofing company down in Florida. And I'm estimating to make between $5,000 and $9,000 a month. You know, it's a sales job, so it's kind of a rough average. I have about $5,000 currently in savings. And then so estimating I'll come back roughly with $20,000 after the three months. That would give me $25,000 to put down. I was thinking about putting down on a duplex and then renting out the other side to get some income to pay for that mortgage.

Do you think I should hold on and still work a little bit more and save some more money? Yes. Or whenever I come come back based on that number i purchase a duplex yeah i would just wait i appreciate the idea that you're trying to create some assets and trying to create um you know a baseline here to start to grow your wealth um but number one i want you out of debt do you have any debt um i have a car loan yeah you need to pay that off about three thousand left on that so i mean i, you need to pay that off first. I have about $3,000 left on that. So, I mean, I can go ahead and pay it off.

Good. So you think I should do that now? Well, or as soon as you make the move, one of the two. As soon as you get your first check in. Let's get that cleared up. Okay. And then you need an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. And then if you buy a duplex and 18 months later are married to this girl,

you're going to sell the duplex and buy a house that she wants to live in because she's not going to live there. And so instead, I would just short-circuit that, and let's wait and pile up the cash for after the marriage to buy a house. Okay. And then I also have about $8,000 in a mutual fund and then $4,000 in just like a Robinhood account that I've been investing in. Okay, good.

Then go ahead and pay the car off today. Okay. And then whenever I go to purchase a house, do you think I should liquidate that and then use that as a down payment or go ahead and keep those in there? Yeah, you have your emergency fund of three to six months of expenses in a simple savings account just for rainy days. And then everything else is going down on this house because the goal is to pay the house off as fast as possible after you buy it okay well the main reason i was thinking about duplex is i wanted to hold on to it and then use as a rental property down the road but you think i should go and skip that and just purchase a home yep yep yep i want you to get some rental

property later but i don't want debt on the rental property, and I don't want you learning to be a landlord while you're learning a new job and while you're dating the boss's daughter. Yeah, I don't want you counting any future dollars that you are earning from the father of your girlfriend. That just, man, you're setting yourself up for triple heartbreak, brother. There's just so many things can go wrong here. When they go wrong, they're all going to go wrong. He just slipped off the roof, officer. I don't know what happened so yeah bro yeah let's count

those checks after they're in your hand man yeah yeah good it sounds fun sound like you got an adventure ahead of you oh that's the most passive-aggressive thing i heard you say today dave it's an adventure you know i tell you you're crazy, which you are. It's going to work out. It's going to be awesome. It will be good. It's going to be awesome. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Over the years, I've heard countless horror stories from listeners about being harassed by debt collectors, receiving calls at work on their cell phones, and some even getting yelled at and threatened.

That is not okay. There are laws against this, and there are people, attorneys, that can help make this stop if they are in fact breaking the law. Go to CollectionBully.com to learn more. Fill out a quick questionnaire that will identify if you are a victim of this type of illegal harassment. That's CollectionBully.com. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you for joining us. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Rob is with us. Rob's in Atlanta, Georgia.

Hey, Rob, how are you? Hey, Dave, Dr. D. How are you guys doing? Great, man. How can we help? I am on Baby Step 7. Praise God for that. Me and my wife, I've always been the nurse.

She's always been the free spirit. I've found we are on baby step seven by the way thank you john um but i've always found that um i'm only we've led financial peace university probably close to a dozen times but i just recently found some like credit cards that she had that i didn't know about nothing's on them necessarily um i've always kind of had to drag her to the meetings and stuff like that and i know oftentimes the answer for this is go to counseling we've been to counseling we've been married 26 years been counseling many times and her ultimate response to all of it is you are who you are i am who i am and i don't see the point going any

further much so i'm kind of had a am i just since we're on baby step seven she has a a job as well that uh she does that we don't incorporate into the regular budget she does kind of her own self care like hair and nails and stuff like that. Just never been completely on the same page, but have great success ultimately. So I'm just looking for some guidance from you guys. Yeah, brother, this isn't a baby step question. This is a, y'all are on two different pages, man. And I can't imagine this isn't showing up in other places in your relationship besides just financially. Where else does this show up?

Well, I mean, we are on the same page in so many ways, spiritually, parenting, sexually, things like that. So it's just money. She says, you be you and I'll be me. I'll keep my paycheck. You pay for the rest of the house. I'll take care of me. I'm going to hide stuff and be deceptive even though I know you're out leading classes on how people can live whole connected lives. Everything else is just above board and all good? Yeah. I mean, we have a very healthy marriage.

So here's what I'm telling you. Outside of this. You don't. It's not as healthy as you think it is. And, man, if I'm the first guy to tell you that, I'm ashamed of the counselors you all have worked with, ashamed of your community that surrounds you guys, but there's some deeper-rooted issues here

because this is something that means a lot to you, that you've put on the block, that you've gone up and presented yourself in a certain way to your community members, to your church, to your friends, to your family, and she's gone behind your back and been deceptive. That tells me there's deeper cracks in this thing. Or just straight up bowed up her back and said,

screw you, I'm going to do whatever I want to do. I mean, that's the message you got. It's the message I heard. Right. Yeah. I'm a grown-up. I have the right to do whatever I want to do. And, you know, the fact that that is contrary to everything you believe

doesn't matter. I'm going to do whatever I want. And it's not about whether you have a credit card or not. It's about the disconnection. Yeah, this is not about the marriage. I mean, if you're not about whether you have a credit card or not. It's about the disconnection. Yeah, this is about marriage. I mean, if you're not on the same page and there's a level of disrespect here that and, you know, if you were doing this to her, it'd be the same thing. I mean, if and so I, you know, I don't know, John, I mean, he he said i you know i don't know john i mean he he said you know more counseling but i don't think more counseling is going to be good so i i don't know what do you do i to me that

you sit down and yeah yeah she's not being fully known and he's not being fully known they're not being fully honest with one another and the temptation here is he's trying to measure the success of his marriage by the size of his bank account. And that's not how that works, man. You can have a remarkable marriage without seven figures in the bank, and you can have a train wreck of a marriage or marriage number six or seven or eight with seven figures in the bank. And at some point, you have to sit down and say,

I'm going to have to put all the cards on the table. I'm heartbroken over this. And I need to know what else is there. Because this will be the first time I've ever heard of everything firing on all cylinders in a relationship and somebody saying, but I'm going to lie to you and deceive you and not do this thing over here. But everywhere else it's okay. That's just not how that works, so there's something there that people aren't incongruent in one area incongruent in other areas not that not that sharply right yeah um and so there's

something else here you're right if she says i'm not going to counseling what you may want to do is go on your own yeah and say i need to work on myself because that's all you can control in this moment you can't fix her you can't solve her you can't help her um she's going to have to want to be plugged in well and here too and a good counselor can coach you on how to interact right right differently than you ever have before maybe yeah it creates a different result and without talking to her there may be things that you know that rob you're bringing to the table that make you not a safe place for her to come home to, that make her have to hide stuff because you're somebody that flies off the handle.

You are fill in the blank, fill in the blank. And so I don't want to dump all this on her. But what I'm telling you is, man, it would be the first of my experience that you guys are just humming along, except for this one place where she lies to you and is just completely dismisses you. Obstinate. Yeah. Obstinate. Yeah.

Yeah. That's just, that's strange. Yeah. Obstinate, yeah. Yeah, that's just strange. Yeah. Hey, thanks for the call. Yeah, it's hard, man. Wish I could be more help. So the recommendation, you were right, Rob, is more counseling, that you get a different one and someone that's a little more bold and that calls you out on your stuff and also trains you up on how to interact with her to draw her back into the conversation again. Because couples who look at each other and say, yeah, you do you, I'll do me. This is not a couple.

This is a roommate. Right. Yeah, it's a business partner. And y'all have done well as a business community. Way to go, man. You made some money. Sage is with us. Sage is in Tallahassee, Florida.

Hi, Sage. How are you? Hi. How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? Okay, my husband's job is ending probably in about four months, and we have about $58,000 in cash and about $180,000 in our 401k and about $20,000 in stock. We are completely out of debt except for our home. We have paid $100,000 of it off this last year, so I'm down to the $167,000.

My question is, he's 63, so since he's losing his job, we're wondering if it would be smart to take our 401K and pay our house off or keep it. If you had more money, I would, but it's going to drain you down to almost nothing because you're going to have to pay the taxes on that 401K, and by the time you do that, I mean, he's over 59 1⁄2, so he doesn't have any penalty, but you'll have taxes on it. So if you told me it's $600,000 in there, I'd say, yeah, I'll do it. Pay the taxes on that much and pay off the house today. But you're going to end up with no nest egg and a paid-for house.

Well, I have a rental house that's completely paid for that my elderly parents live in. And so I do have rent from that once they are, you know, no longer with us. That house right now is worth about probably $350,000. Okay. So that gives you a little nest egg. That's helpful. But still, how old are they? They're in their late 80s.

Okay. And not in the best of health. I don't want to set up a scenario by paying off the house with your only cash money that you've got, not counting this piece of real estate, that puts you in a position that your parents have to die for you to be okay money-wise. That ultimately is going to happen. We all know that. But I don't want to be financially wishing for their death so that we can get some money because we're broke,

except for this house that they're living in. So I don't want to do that. No, I'm not paying off the house today. You don't have enough cash to do that and be in a safe place. And your husband's career is not over. He needs to go to work. He's going to have to go back to work. Yeah, and it's not done.

You're not in to go to work. He's going to have to go back to work. Yeah, and it's not done. This is not time to retire. You're not in a position to retire. And I've got two parents that found new careers in their early 60s, making more money than they did before, doing something similar or totally different, depending on which one of my parents is possible. But you're going to have to suck up your ego and your pride, and you're going to have to go do it. There you go.

This is The Dave Ramsey Show. your ego and your pride and you're gonna have to go do it there you go this is the dave ramsey show Dr. John Deloney Ramsey, personality, is my co-host today. You can join us at 888-825-5225. When it comes to making big money or life changes like buying a home, getting married, having a baby, the last thing on your mind is making sure you have the right insurance. But maybe it shouldn't be the last thing. Hey, I get it it big changes are overwhelming what if not have but if not having the time or the energy is what's keeping you from getting the right insurance coverage you can use one of our endorsed local providers for insurance

they are independent agents that means they don't work for the insurance company they work for you and they shop all the different companies and get the best coverage at the best price, and they don't charge you anything for that. That's right. An independent agent gets you a deal. It's the only way I buy insurance. So I don't buy from a captive agent who has one company that they sell for, and, of course, they're going to tell you that State Farm is the best when it's not.

So there you go. I just said that out loud, didn't I? All you have to do is text INSURANCE to 33789. That's 33789. And get connected with an ELP. That's INSURANCE to 33789. All right, let's go to Rob in Portland, Maine. Hey, Rob, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. Hi, John. How are you? Better than we deserve. What's up? Hey, I'm at a big crossroad in my life. I am going to be 47 years old next month. I am also going to be at the 25th year of my career as a police officer and eligible for retirement with a 50% pension.

Wow. My question to you is I'm looking at making a dramatic change in moving from Maine to Middle Tennessee to the Metro Nashville area with my family, my wife, a 16-year-old, and a 12-year-old. And I'm not sure if I'm making the right decision or not by making that move. My pension will be approximately $50,000 that I'll have. My wife's salary is $60,000, and we're fortunate enough that she's able to work from home, so she's going to be able to keep her job. And I am looking at starting all over in law enforcement down there. So my pay hourly will almost be cut in half by starting all over from what I make now.

So I'm just looking for some guidance, if that's the right thing to do, or if I stay where I'm at, I get 2% towards my pension for every year I stay. Why do you want to move, man? That's what I'm looking at. Well, we found Middle Tennessee because our oldest boy was stationed at Fort Campbell, and we visited him quite a bit. He ended up marrying a young lady from there, from Hendersonville, and we spent a lot of time there and liked it, liked the school districts that we saw and felt

that it might be a good change for us. Does it get you excited to think about moving? It does get me excited to think about moving. What I get less excited about is starting all over in a career that I've spent 25 years in. There's nothing financially wrong with what you're proposing. Obviously, you're going to have plenty of income, and you won't have any issue living. Portland, Maine, I've been there many times. I love it.

It's a wonderful town. Obviously, I'm a fan of Tennessee. I live in middle tennessee and have my whole life and so um you know it's not like you're um downgrading your uh lifestyle or standard of living or quality of life um or tremendously upgrading it because portland's a quality town it's not a it's not a dump it's not a dump. It's not a dump. It's a good place. And obviously we're a little warmer weather here. Politics are a lot different than they are in Maine.

That's another reason to head south. As long as you leave the politics up there, you're welcome. I agree. I agree. Hey, so, Rob, I did this recently. After my family, we packed up and moved across the country. And there is something I repeat often is the best part about moving is you have a new adventure. You got to find new parts of yourself.

You get to learn new things. And I relish that part. I like that challenge. The worst part about moving is that you go with you. My marriage problem stayed the same my insecurity stayed the same my waistline didn't suddenly fall off like all that stuff stayed the same and so when i got to tennessee i had to work on those things that i was having to work on in texas too and so whatever challenges you and your wife have or blessings that you have all that comes with you right and um now the common denominator in this story is you guys that's right so if you're up

for an adventure you're up for an adventure man um and if you're not you're not but i always say go for it um but that's just me there's a tremendous amount of refugees moving into tennessee yes they are i saw a great bumper sticker today it was from a doctor who just relocated from california to texas and had a sticker to stay to texas and it said do not california our state and it was just as blunt as it could be so yeah leave it there amen well hey all that aside uh you've got the money. It sounds like the other thing is, other than the fact that your job is going to be different forever, everything else could be undone. Right. You could move here and three years from now move back.

You would not be able to move back into your role at your old job, but so what? And so if you hate it, end the adventure. That's exactly right. Move back. It doesn't have to be permanent. And theoretically, your pension stays put, your wife's job, she can work from home. So you guys have a lot of options. You have a soft cushion to fall on if this thing goes sideways.

Yeah. And there's no requirement that you take that type of law enforcement job and start over at a beat cops rate. I've actually my my old man had several compadres that would be in this very same situation they would work all the way up till their late 40s when their first kid was about to go to college they'd pull their pension and retire and then they'd go make 35 grand as a college campus police officer and all their kids go free oh that's not so they get their pension plus a small salary and, and all their kids go free. Oh, that's not a bad idea.

And so they get their pension plus a small salary plus all their kids go to college for free. That's not a bad gig. And that's a smooth move, right? Not a bad gig at all. If you pick the right college, you'll be the chief of police in that college. Well, then you work it through. So you've got all kinds of options, right? It's just thinking of – it's getting your head around the adventure, and I love the adventure part.

Yeah, yeah, I'm up for that part. Hey, good question. Thank you for calling in. Blessy is with us in Detroit, Michigan. Hey, Blessy, what's up? Hey, Dave, how are you? Great. How can I help?

So I am 22 years old right now, and I just graduated last year in May. And coming out of college, I landed a full-time job. I got great. Wonderful. Yeah. So I saved up a pretty penny in my bank account right now, about $31K. And I'm kind of wondering, in this sort of stage in life, a lot of people have been telling me that I should start investing that money because it's just sitting in the bank. However, I don't know what the safe is.

How much money do you have saved? I have about $31,000. Okay, good. Well, we suggest, and you're 100% debt-free, right? Yes, I am. Good for you. We suggest that you have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses, and I would set that aside.

In your situation, I'd go ahead and set six months aside because you've done really well and you've done a great job saving money. And that's in a separate savings account, never to be touched except for emergencies. That's your rainy day fund. Only if something really bad happens do you touch it. Okay? It's not a I want to buy a couch fund or go on vacation fund. Then the other money you can save past that, you can begin to invest.

And we suggest at that point what we call baby step four, where you start putting 15% of your income into retirement. And then in and around that as well, you can start saving for your first house. And so I would not save any more than 15% to a retirement of your income. And anything above that, if you want to save more, you would save it towards the house. But I'm saying I would not invest it in a retirement account, a Roth IRA, a 401K that's a Roth with a match, in good mutual funds, all of that. So hang on. I'm going to send you a copy of the book, The Total Money Makeover,

to show you exactly how to do that. It's the step-by-step plan that we recommend, and it's the number one bestseller for many, many years in a row. Hang on. We'll help you with that. This is The Dave Ramsey Show. chat. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. You can listen to Dave, Rachel Cruz, Chris Hogan, or the rest of the Ramsey Network anywhere with the Ramsey Network app on your smartphone. Catch all of our full shows, browse by topic, or send clips to your friends.

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