The Ramsey Show - App - My Wife Keeps Failing College After 8 Years! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: January 29, 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, Dr. John Deloney. Ramsey personality, best-selling author, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Mike is starting us off this hour in Buffalo, New York. Hey, Mike, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show.

Hi, Dave. Hi, John. Thank you very much. Thank you. How can we help? So my parents got divorced about 15 years ago. Since then, my mom has been paying for a whole life policy insurance plan on my father. She's done paying for it. She's offered to kind of transfer it to me. It's $100,000 policy. There's $5,500 cash value at this moment. And I believe the annual premium is about $3,000. I'm not sure what to do. Why would you do this? My wife and I were talking about it. And if we, he's 74 years old. So I realized it's kind of

like shorting a stock and talking about the life of my father but um if we only were doing quote-unquote invest five or ten or fifteen thousand dollars into it to get a hundred in the end um seems like it might be an okay idea won't be if he lives 20 years that's true how's his health if we're just gonna get cold and short your dad here he's 74 he's had diabetes for about 30 years and he's had a double bypass heart surgery we're not that close i i hope so i love him as my father but i you know we're not that close uh and you were you would become the beneficiary i'm currently the beneficiary oh you currently are i would yeah but she's my mother has decided

to stop paying on it so she's offering for me to continue me and my wife or um just take the cash value now and and do something with it. Okay. Well, you know, the thing about personal finance is it involves more than just mathematical analysis. We have to consider emotions and relationships and conscience and morality and behavior, all of those things enter into a wise answer to your question mathematically i think you might come out yeah but do you really want to do that i don't i don't want to do that yeah i mean we're joking around a little bit of being a little bit sarcastic about it you shorten your dad or whatever that kind of thing but i uh it's just not you know i don't i don't i don't when i'm 75

years old and i'm on my deathbed i that i didn't want to i don't want that going across my mind that i did that i don't think you're doing anything morally wrong it's just weird would you agree yeah i think that's why we're having a little bit of... It feels weird. It feels weird. You know why it feels weird? Because it's weird. And Mike, what you're going to start doing in your... How long have you been married? Eight years.

Okay, so you're still in a young marriage. What you're going to start doing is you and your wife are going to start counting this $100,000. You're going to start leaning into this $100,000. Well, we can get this kind of house, or we can not deal with this. You're going to start making life decisions as though this is a sure thing. And what happens is it's going to further press on that relationship with your dad. And I get that it, like Dave said, I get that the math may work out. You may make some money on this deal.

He said he doesn't have much of a relationship with him, but it's just the same. I just don't want to. I wouldn't do it, and it has nothing to do with the math. I wouldn't either, and I'm the same way. I think you might win the math argument, but I don't think at the end of your life you're going to be proud now if my dad came to me and said i've had this no no still no yeah i just don't want to short my dad no i i just definitely it's just straight up what we're doing

here and it's just that whether you like him or whether you don't right i mean maybe you haven't spoken to him in 30 years i don't know but it doesn't matter i it doesn't that's not the it's just it's i'm not i'm not gonna do it i'm gonna short a stranger no i wouldn't do it that's what i'm saying but again i might if my dad came to me and said hey i've been working on this deal i got a scheme for us but me and my dad are he's all homicide detective he talks about death that's just wrong no, I hung out with your dad the other day. It's still wrong. Okay. Yeah, you can't short your old man, even if you don't like him.

In fact, I would say especially if you don't like him. Man, once you start leaning into spending that money, that's hard to come back from. Yeah, you can do it if you want, but you called us and asked. And again, the answer here is based on the whatever scarring that this event does to your conscience that's causing you to ask the question. And this will leave a scar. And I don't want that scar in your spirit. I love it. That's what I'm trying to avoid.

Dalton is with us in Waco, Texas. Hey, Dalton, how are you? I'm doing pretty good. I got stuff. i deserve how can we help so i've got a pretty interesting situation here uh my wife and i were doing we did financial peace and we were doing pretty well we paid off a little over $30,000 in a year. Good. And now my career situation, not my career, but my job has changed. So instead of working a consistent schedule, basically what I do is I go where I'm needed, different nursing homes. So essentially I don't have a steady consistent uh income you know uh you know i might make a thousand one week i might make less another so the issue we're trying to figure out is how to go about getting our budget back on track did your overall income go up or down

uh it's hard to say because this is a brand new thing i've only been doing this for for a couple weeks what do you think uh i think it has the potential to either stay the same or go down because i'm also going back to school so my days are limited why are you going back to school if you got financial problems uh well i was furthering my nursing is what i was doing yeah but you weren't doing that before when you were paying off debt now you added a variable to this situation after you lost the stability of your income why well uh frankly i've been a uh an lvn for over seven years now, and I'm really chasing, trying to push to get the bachelor's for nursing to go get into a hospital.

That'd be great. Why don't you do that after you get out of debt? Well, that's a good thought, too. Yeah. Nothing changed here, except you decided to go back to school at the exact time your income became unstable. Bad choice. So I'd probably put off the school a little bit, and let's get this mess cleaned up first.

As far as how to handle the irregular income, just run what you think your low average is going to be, and then make a list of things you want to do with money when you come in with more money than you thought. And so if you think it's going to be an average of about $1,000, run your debt budget on $500 or $700, and then when more comes in, have a list of things that it automatically goes to that are your next priorities. It's an irregular income planning sheet if you want to do it analog in the back of your Total Money Makeover book. 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,

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the time always use the promo code ramsey and you can get a good deal all right today's question comes from roger in kentucky roger writes my wife and I have been married 10 years, and we have three children. I work as a federal law enforcement officer, and my wife is a teacher assistant. We make about $110,000 combined, and we own two houses, which one is a rental property. The issue I have is my wife keeps failing her final year in college, and it's getting too expensive to keep letting her return. She's been attending college over the past eight years. I want to move for my career progression, but she doesn't want to leave.

I could take a promotion in another state and make $100,000 on my own. What should I do? I really wish my wife would find another job. I've explained to her if she was making more money, I could ease up on overtime and be home more. Dave, there's a lot here. Here's what I'll just call out immediately. If you've been in college for eight years and you continue to fail your last year, your last semester, it's not because you're not smart enough. it's not because there isn't the academic support and help and assistance for you there's something else at play here whether somebody is choosing

or they are not intentionally but sabotaging themselves or this is the last shred of control this wife in this relationship has but there's something bigger going on here than just simply i can't get past that last semester in college. Now, of course, depending on what you make it through three years of college, they're going to help. Yeah, right. You have the intellectual gray matter to make it through the last year. You're correct. So I'm calling BS.

That's right. And so what I this sounds harsh when I say it this way. But if you choose not to get the assistance, the tutoring, the support – put it this way, colleges have an incentive to help you graduate because that helps them with their rankings. That helps them with a number of internal metrics. Failing eight years in a row in their last semester is not good for their reputation. It reflects bad on the college, right? So if you are choosing to not do the things you need to do to pass.

Yeah, like go to class, do the homework, take the test, study for the test, that kind of stuff. Then you are choosing to fail. Yeah. Either intentionally or subconsciously to not get all psychobabble. So there's something else going on here, Roger, that sounds like you and your wife are not on the same page. And this is the last shred of control she has in this house you want to think about tanking this deal that that's her holding on to what probably not intentionally because he he because he wants her to go to work

and big time and instead of just being an assistant and make some money and she's afraid of doing that so the way to avoid that sabotage not that directly but it might be i'm up with the kids late i got to get up super early i don't feel good little timmy was sick today so i couldn't go to class i wasn't able to go to tutoring for this exam i had to miss this exam so you create this ecosystem where you are unintentionally not intentional, right? And you are not successful with your final goal. And he wants to move. He wants her to make more money. He wants her to get another job. And I don't hear a lot about what does she want to do?

What role does she see herself? What does she envision herself playing in this family? And it sounds like Roger and his wife are not together. They're not unified in this. Well, yeah, That's for sure. Right. So what's the recommendation? What do they do?

The recommendation is Roger has some very clear goals for his wife. I'm going to recommend that Roger back out of the here's what you should be doing and here's what we could be doing if, and he needs to sit down and ask his wife, what do you want to do? Do you want to be a stay-at-home mom? What's your perfect world look like in five years? There you go. And how do I help us get there?

How do we get there together? Yeah. And he might want to move. He might want to. She doesn't want to leave. Well, he needs to take that into consideration. They need to have a unified conversation here because they're running two separate lives.

They're roommates here. Huh. So what do you think the probability is he wants her to fail secretly because it keeps him in it keeps his uh narrative going where he gets to move and take the other job well it makes him the victim right and he gets to but he gets to throw out the um maybe he creates the ecosystem where she can't win subconsciously or consciously i don't know so that this thing so that melts down and she has to give up and well we got to move and take him out of the job now it could and what you get is couples who get in this self-reinforcing dance

i'm the victim i'm the victim i'm the winner i'm the strong one i'm the one keeping the house together i'm the one keeping the money together and then you get stuck keeping the money together. And then you get stuck in these roles. Nobody wants to be in these situations. And that's when somebody's got to use your language. Someone's got to throw the flag, stop the dance, turn the music off, get away, and say, what are we doing? Where are we going? I love you and want to see you successful. And I feel like you're sabotaging my desire to come home yeah this is thick enough in this language they

probably need to sit down with a good marriage counselor a hundred percent okay and have somebody just have somebody call time out and go uh you're in crazy cycle here stop the crazy just a minute stop dancing and just put it all over the table calls it love and respect he calls it the crazy cycle that when someone doesn't get love then they don't give respect and when they don't give respect they don't give love and when they don't give respect they don't give love and when they don't give love they don't get respect and male female you know and around and so begins the washing machine and crazy cycle today people will will live in that dance for a decade because they don't want to have one hard stop the music conversation they just continue and continue and continue well you're afraid if you stop the music

there might not be a chair that That's exactly right. Musical chairs. Right. So somebody stop. The metaphors are getting thick here, but yeah. Okay. Wow, that's very interesting. There's a lot between the lines there. A lot.

Atlanta is on the line. Nick is calling. Hi, Nick. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How you doing, sir? Better than I deserve. What's up in your world?

So, long story short, I'm 27 years old. I'm a teacher, full-time teacher. I'm engaged and married this upcoming July with my fiancée. Yay! Yeah, thank you. Yeah, super blessed. Super blessed, for sure. We recently bought a home together, and I guess I have kind of a two part question. I just wanted to get your opinion on if we are on a, on the,

on the right path, doing things the right way financially. And then also any tips that you might have for a successful marriage in terms of combining finances, because you've talked about before in the show, I want to talk to people that have been in the game and been successful for not the quick fix but the long term. So right now, just so you know, we're on baby step two. The only debt that we really have is my student loan.

She doesn't have any student loan. My student loan is about $7,500. What will be your household income when you do get married in July? $90,000. Excellent. Okay, good. Have you guys talked about stuff like the baby steps? You're obviously acquainted with them, is she?

Yeah, I've talked about it with her. I listen to you pretty much every day, and she definitely knows who you are. I'm definitely more um more uh more knowledgeable about what your message is and what your steps are than she is but she understands the philosophy and um you know i'm trying to get her on the same same page as that as well well i think the conversation starts with just something like the um people who win with money and win with relationships i'm reading about this honey, are in agreement on their plan. And so let's look at this plan together and see if we can both be in agreement and enthusiastic about this plan.

If not, we need to make up our own that we're both in agreement and enthusiastic about. Mine's not the only way to get there. I believe with the data that we have that it's the shortest path to wealth. But if you choose to go a different way, that's up to you. It's more important that you're in agreement than that you follow me. That's what's more important. And then secondly, if you want to do it the most efficient way, I would say ours is, but you can make that decision as adults.

Okay? But yeah, let 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. 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-free stage, somebody's with us. Tom's with us. Hey, Tom, how are you? Better than I deserve, sir. How are you?

Welcome. Where do you live, sir? Streeter, Illinois. Cool. Welcome to Nashville. And all the way here to do a debt-free screen. Yes, sir. How much have you paid off, Tom?

$48,500. In 23 months. phil and all the way here to do a debt-free screen yes sir how much have you paid off tom uh forty eight thousand five hundred dollars forty twenty three months forty eight five in 23 months making what kind of revenue income roughly um range started at fifty thousand and currently up to sixty seven thousand cool what do you do for a living i work for a trucking company as a manager of operations cool okay so in. So in two years, basically, you paid off $25,000 a year, roughly. Man, you've been on beans and rice. You've been getting after it. Yes, sir. Well done.

Very well done. What kind of debt was the 48-5? The vast majority of it was student loan debt. Okay. Student loan debt, a little bit of credit card debt, and the remainder of a car loan that I had. Yeah. So how long ago were you in school? I graduated in May of 2012.

Okay. So Sally Mae had her own spare bedroom at your place. She just been hanging out for almost a freaking decade. Just about. Yeah. Just about. What was the wake-up call? What happened 23 months ago?

Well, actually, Mike, anything kind of starts before then. I originally graduated college with about $75,000 of student loan debt. And I didn't quite get a degree in left-handed puppetry, but it really pretty much wasn't much better than that. You want to share? Music merchandising. Music? Music, technology, and a minor in marketing. Okay. Wow. Okay.

Wow. Okay. And I immediately got out of school selling cars. Okay. So it wasn't quite what I wanted to do. Well, they had music in them. They were radio. Something like that.

Right. But just automatically as I was graduating, I knew that this debt that I had for my student loan debt just was not – I just was never comfortable with it. As I'm even signing the paperwork, I'm like, there's something in my gut that's telling me I shouldn't be doing this. So when I finally graduated college, I saw this massive, you know, 75 grand and said, nope, this is getting out of my life. I don't want this anymore. This is going to ruin it. I need it to stop.

So I got to work, got to work, and started, you know, paying things off, paying things off. And I was about as sharp as a sword starting to go through it, and I became about as dull as a butter knife by the end. I had gotten to about the 48.5 mark and just— Quit. Just about. I was pretty close to it. And yeah, then here I am. Got gazelle intense, and here I am. How did you decide to do this? I mean, 23 months ago, something clicked.

It did. And changed. What happened? I actually discovered you. Oh, okay. So I was on my way home from Duluth, Minnesota, and stopped at a gas station. And as I'm walking to the bathroom, I see this face on my left, and I turned, kind of jumped a little bit. And it was a picture of you, actually.

It was the audio book of the dave ramsey show of the total money makeover excuse me what am i doing in a gas station i thought you were gonna say gas station bathroom no not quite okay all right so it looked the price it wasn't that expensive i was like oh you know what i've been feeling this down you know why not let me give it a shot the rest of the six hour drive home listened, listened to the Tone of Money makeover audio book, and it was amazing because everything you were talking about was stuff I had already believed in. I just didn't really know how to vocalize. And the other part I related to it was so well,

I was like, wow, this guy sounds exactly like my dad, but with a southern accent. All right, I guess I can work with this. So I listened to it, prayed about it, went down the YouTube rabbit hole of death-free screams and prayed about it and decided to go for it. All right. That was May of 2018. Used the book and the YouTube stuff to get you going.

Yes, sir. Very cool. Very cool. Wow. Proud of you, man. Yes, sir. And obviously your dad and mom are proud of you. They came down to cheer you on to do your Death Free Scream.

They did. Very nice. They were my biggest critics turned into my biggest supporters because I actually got the Dave Ramsey Show podcast put on my dad's smartphone, and he actually enjoyed it, and my mom and dad enjoyed it so much that they were actually here for their Entree Leadership event back in November. Yeah. I met your dad at the time, yeah.

Wow, very cool. Very cool. So they were critical of you starting this process originally? And you converted them? Sort of, yeah. All right. Except I thought you said I sounded like your dad, but with a southern accent. You sounded like it, but just did wrong order is how he had teached me.

Oh, he didn't like my order. Okay. I had to straighten him out on that. Okay. All right. Good. So it was pretty much hammering me about investing for retirement, but I'm just like, no, I need to pay off this debt. Okay.

All right. Very cool. Well done. Thank you. And now they're cheering you on and here to cheer on your debt-free scream. Yes, sir. How does it feel now that you did this? I can't even believe it.

I mean, I can, but it honestly feels like the weight of the world's been taken off my shoulders. I mean, I just remember just being down at work and just feeling like I've got a ball and chain right around my neck. It's dragging me through and just wearing me down. And I almost feel as light as a feather. I mean, it literally is an emotional pick-me-up. I love it. Changes everything.

Changes everything. So with Dr. John sitting here with a Ph.D. in higher education, I'm curious, how did you select and what advice would you have for someone looking at a nuanced degree? Because that's a very, very specific, nuanced degree. Music merchandising. Yes, sir. Which 12 years ago included CDs. Correct.

And they actually sold CDs in stores at that time. And so merchandising music today would be all digital, obviously, or virtually. I mean, almost all digital. And virtually is not a good word to use now. But anyway, how did you select that degree? What was going on in your head? And what advice would you have for someone that had an interest in something like that? Because you obviously, if you had it to do over, wouldn't do it.

Yeah, exactly that way. Number one is slow down. Slow down. I was a hothead when I was younger, admittedly, and I just kind of rushed into things, not really thinking of all of the consequences. I did what my heart told me to do and not what my brain told me I probably should be doing. And really what you need to do is kind of do a combination of both. There has to be some common sense along with doing what your heart tells you. So number one is slow down. Number two is surround yourself with people who, A, have gone through it and who, B, can give you advice to do it debt-free.

Yeah. Because, I mean, I was brought up in the generation of this is just what you do. You take out student loans and here you go. Sure. But just, yeah. And don't go to a private school. Don't go to a private school. Okay.

All right. Cool. Well, that's good information then. So, well done. Thank you, sir. Well done that's good information then. So well done. Thank you, sir. Well done. Now, you've been through Total Money Makeover. You've been down the YouTube wormhole.

What advice do you have for someone who's listening? This is their first time to see a debt-free scream or to hear a story like this. What should they do if they want to get out of debt? You can do it. I am bright, but I will admit I am not the smartest person in the world. You can do this. What turned me on was when Dave had his moment where he turned the camera and he told and said,

you, you in the audience. Yes, you, you can do this. Believe in yourself. You can do this. It's going to take work.

It's going to be hard. At the end of the day, it is so, so worth it. Yeah. I mean, you were on beans and rice for 23 months. I mean, you didn't have a life for 23 months, but you're free now. I am free now.

You can do anything you want to do. That's the idea. Congratulations. Very, very well done. All right, Tom. Well done, sir. $48,500 paid off in 23 months, making $50,000 to $67,000. Count it down.

Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. I am debt-free! Yeah! Woo-hoo! Well done, sir. Well done. Wow.

So I never thought, I mean, we've talked so much about student loan crisis. We've talked so much about higher ed stuff over the years. But I never thought about the, we make fun of left-handed puppetry or, you know, BB stacking underwater or whatever. All these things you come up with, right, these crazy degrees that nobody has a use for but i never really thought about the idea that a general degree like a just a marketing degree versus a marketing degree for a certain thing right had so much more application it's just a broader brush right and if most colleges you can take a couple of cognate courses they call, but you get those specifics that you love and you can still go out and do a wide range of whatever that is in the field. Right.

Without the degree being so nuanced itself. Very interesting. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Dr. John Deloney Ramsey personality is my co-host today here on the air. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Jamie is with us. Jamie is in Sarasota, Florida. Hi, Jamie. How are you?

I'm doing well, Dave. How are you and John doing? Great. How can we help? Guys, let me go straight to the point. I'm 38, married, have a a child one on the way yay baby

I know thank you baby step six we owe on our mortgage $13,000 we have about $27,000

in savings so we're gonna pay that bad boy pretty soon like today in the next like in the next

like few hours. Yeah, great. Congrats. So yes, I have a two-part question with that background. Number one, first and foremost, this is not our forever home. In fact, we're probably going to be here

probably another two, I'm assuming two, three years tops before my job moves me again. And I'm wondering, first and foremost, should I invest into this home, say like gutters and fences and all that? And my second part to this question is that now that the home is going to be paid off, now what? Okay. Well, now what is you max out all retirement, and you begin to save outside of that towards your next purchase. And I've been doing this show coming up on 30 years. It's only in about the last five years that I've heard the phrase forever home

because most people know there's no such thing. You will never have a forever home. Your only forever home is heaven because no matter where you move, you're going to move again. You're not going to stay. Your life changes. Your phase of life changes and everything else. So anyway, it's just not a house you're going to stay in and you're going to move in the next two to three years. That's awesome.

That's cool. So what repairs or enhancements do you do to it? There are two types. Ones that are small enough that you can live up the enjoyment. In other words, whatever you spend. If you got two little babies and you spend a couple thousand bucks on a fence in the backyard and it helps you know that your little baby's playing in the backyard are safe and not running wild out in the neighborhood or something,

then that's probably worth that even if the fence doesn't add value to the house, okay? So that's one type of thing you would do. In other words, it's a small enough investment that when you move, you just burn that money and it was just for the good of the three years of enjoyment, okay? The second type of thing you would do is you would talk to an ELP, one of our real estate endorsed local providers, and just say, okay, I'm thinking of spending this on the kitchen. I'm going to spend $7,000 on a kitchen in a house that's worth X. Do you think I'll get my money back? I don't think so.

Well, you might. I mean, some things you might. I don't know how bad your kitchen is. Okay. I don't think so. Well, you might. I mean, some things you might. I don't know how bad you're catching it, okay? But, you know, does it increase the value dollar for dollar or more than you're spending? I mean, if you spend $7,000 and it increases the value of the Home 10, that's probably a good thing, right? So you would do those kinds of things that increase the value equal to the thing you want to do or more. Especially if it's more, you would do some stuff like that so a gutter sounds like normal repairs that should have already been done we've been getting the house for about uh two plus years so yeah i that was probably going to

be my next project yeah um i mean if the roof is leaking you got to do that regardless because it's just a repair has to be done yeah right i mean that we bought the house brand new so we weren't you know why does it need gutters after three years if it was brand new well that's really why i'm asking is like is it even worth investing in now why does it not have gutters oh it just didn't come with gutters it's a uh uh i mean i don't want to put anybody on blast here but it's a um i don't i say that home the type of home you bought or the price range you bought just did that the standard model didn't have gutters okay so then the question question ask yourself is you get a bid on gutters and

you ask yourself am i increasing the value of the home by that or am i going to get enjoyment of it that much either one the good news is guttering on a basic guttering system on something like that a continuous flow they bring the trucks out it's a pretty cool thing they do and it's it's not very expensive uh so it's not it's not a super high item but my guess is you bought a neighborhood that none of the rest of them have gutters. So it's not like it's devaluing the house unless it's causing damage or something else. So you just got to look at all that and just kind of go, okay, is this a repair that should be done anyway? Or am I doing something that's not done in the neighborhood? An example, an extreme example would be if there are no swimming pools in your neighborhood

and you put in a swimming pool, you're going to lose 80% of the money you you spent on that it is not going to increase the value of the home but about 20 of the cost and so most of that you got to do a lot of swimming in three years come up you know to make to make that make sense right you're gonna be out there every day so otherwise it just doesn't make sense but that's that's the thing you look at is am i increasing the value more or at least as much as i am spending jake's in atlanta hi jake how are you good how you doing dave great man what's up uh wife and i are here um we have uh just a couple questions about like next steps so uh we've been following your plan for several years. Led us to being debt-free in 2019. Way to go.

Thank you, which was good timing, considering 2020 happened right after that. Yeah. So currently where we stand, I'm in the film industry. My wife is a marketing director for a real estate company. So our income fluctuates from time to time. You know, there's years that are really, really good. The years that are, you know, decent and we get all the bills paid and we have a little bit of extra savings. She's probably having a great year and you're not.

Yeah. Yeah. Basically, all of COVID, I was on unemployment. So that kind of threw an obviously big wrench in our plans because we were looking to buy a home. Come February of last year, we actually found out we were pregnant. So we have a brand-new daughter who was born in October. And we are stuck in a one-bedroom loft right now. So the space is very tight, but we have done definitely the best we possibly can, considering where we're at.

And we'd like to maximize where we're at right now. And we kind of don't know what to tackle first. I'm back at work. Okay. So you are debt free 100% because you're renting. You have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. We do. We have about 18K in three to six months of expenses. We do. We have about $18,000 in savings.

Good. Okay. And are you putting money into retirement yet? No, because we put that on hold so we could pay off all the debt. Okay. And now are you going to keep it on hold to save up for a down payment on a house? If you do, that's okay. That's one of our plans.

We were thinking about that, but I'm 35. know i'm 35 she's 32 so well you're not going to save for 10 years with that you're not going to save for 10 years you're going to save for 10 months correct yeah for a house yes yeah that's what i mean you're not going to stay out of retirement long if you do but if you want to go ahead and start retirement and save for a house that's fine or sometimes people pause on retirement just a little bit and do what we call baby step 3b and save for a house so four is 15 of your income into retirement five is kids college and six is pay off the house that you haven't yet bought correct and that's the baby steps and if you'll just work them that way you're going to get to everything you're going to have a baby your baby's going to have a college fund you're going to get

there you're going to be putting money into retirement you're going to get there and you can either do all of that and then save more slowly for a home or you can uh uh save faster for a home and put everything on hold temporarily and do a baby step 3b and that'll get you there so it's it's but here's what i hear here's what i hear in his voice dave i know that we're supposed 3B, and that'll get you there. Here's what I hear in his voice, Dave. I know that we're supposed to do this in order, but we want a house right now. Can we go ahead and just put 1% down and do it?

No. And you may have to go to a two-bedroom apartment for another year. Right. And nobody wants that. It's not going to be fun. But if you can't live where you are, you're going to have to go rent something for another year while you save up your down payment. And it's moving twice and all that. That's okay. It's better in the long run.

Oh, definitely. Definitely. Definitely. Oh, I'm sorry. I missed that. Good catch. Alright, that puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show on the books. Thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, and we'll be back. 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.

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