The Ramsey Show - App - NEVER Say These Things to Your Spouse About Money (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

Rachel Cruze & Dr. John Delony answer your questions and discuss: What to do when you're underwater on your car, from the blog: How to Get Out of a Car Loan, How to get on the same page as your spouse (and 10 things you should NEVER say), from the blog: How to Talk to Your Spouse About Money, "Should I contribute less to retirement to save up for a house?" Budgeting on an irregular income, "Did I mess up by paying off my house too early?" Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Take our FREE 3 minute assessment: 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

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual, real relationships. Hey guys, I am Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with Ramsey Personality, Dr. John Deloney. And we are here to answer your questions, everything when it comes to your money, your relationships, your work, and your life. And it's a free call anywhere in the country at 888-825-5225.

So up first this hour, we have Christian in Anaheim, California. Hey, Christian, welcome to the show. Hey, Rachel. Hey, John. First time calling. I'm a big fan. I've been hearing about you guys. Awesome.

Well, thanks for calling. Two weeks so far, yeah. Well, I'm 30 years old. I'm working. I have a full-time job. I'm making $3,500, but I have a debt of $68,000. I'm getting a little bit frustrated and scared. I don't have a savings right now, but I'm working right now with Baby Steps. I still have $400 right now in the emergency fund, but the big problem of my debt is my car.

I've been watching videos. I've been watching all the videos from the Rancho Show about the car problems that many others have as well. And the big problem is that I own a loan of forty thousand dollars and what kind of car is it man it's a Hyundai Santa Fe 2022 hybrid um okay it's um I bought it on Zero Miles MSRP was 36 um I think it was 36, but the markup here in California are extremely high. Yeah. And they added like $5,000 above, plus I bought it with the negotiation to, you know, to cut a little bit more.

Yeah, sure. Sure. Hey, so before we get going on the math and all this, how old are you, brother? 30 years old. 30. All right. Yeah. I'm older than you.

I'm in my 40s, okay? Here's what I want to tell you. Here's what I want to tell you here's what i want to tell you the fact that you walked over to your bathroom counter and stared yourself in the mirror and said this this change starts with me dude i want to tell you and when you when you when you first say that and then you look at reality when you choose to look at reality and you see how much debt you have, it gets scary and you feel ashamed and you can't believe you put you and your family in this position. I want to tell you, I think you're brave and I think you're really freaking strong.

You're stronger than most of the people that you run around with because you're willing to face something that they won't and that's reality. And now it's just about coming up with a plan. I promise you I've done stupider stuff with way more zeros than what you've done. Okay? And I want you to know I'm standing tall on the back end after the smoke has cleared, and you're going to get there, and I just want you to hear me say before we dig into the math, I'm proud of you.

Okay? Thank you, man. I'm proud of you. Yeah, this is the first time that I opened about my death. There you go. that's right yes yeah you're not you're not an idiot you're not a moron you're not broke you're this isn't forever you screwed up and and probably nobody nobody nobody sat down and talked to you about how money works did they no naturally no i've been learning by myself that's right you learn on the street

youtube man and so congratulations for saying enough's enough's enough. I'm proud of you, man. It's big time. Your grandkids aren't going to go through this because of the work you're doing right now, brother. And that's legacy change and that's commendable, man. I'm proud of you. Thank you. Yeah. So, you know, I've been listening and

you know, you guys suggest, obviously, to get rid of the car, which is very important. I'm open right now. And the problem is that, you know, it's under the water. I checked a couple of sources, and I think the lowest was $10,000. The highest was $15,000. So I don't know how exactly should i approach to these steps you know 15 15 000 is what you said the highest you found underwater i found underwater so okay okay i

apologize okay so yeah so i'm sorry to interrupt you um my loan is currently forty thousand dollars yep uh and and yeah and i've been paying about for what eight six months something like that so it hasn't been in a year so i'm still paying the car so i don't know what to do right now sure sure no i i i hear you and i hear the the stress in your voice so um so there's a couple couple of things okay again christian how much and I think you said at the, at the beginning of the call, but how much do you make a year? Uh, a year it's 58, 58, taking out the, yeah, taking out the taxes. I make a monthly, uh, $3,500. Okay. But take home. Yeah. It's 58 a year. Yeah. And what other debt do you have besides the car? I have credit cards and I have loans and I have a student loan.

Okay, so how much is each credit card? How much do you owe on each one? I have one, it's $2,000 and the other one is $4,000. It's maximum right now. Okay, so $2,000, $4,000. And then what were the other loans that you have? I'm sorry, can you repeat the question? Yes, and you said you have a few other loans.

What are those? Those are personal. Okay, and how much are those? One is $4,000. Okay. And the other one is, this one three thousand okay and the small one is two two thousand five hundred dollars two thousand okay okay so you have a two thousand two thousand three thousand and then a four thousand four thousand combined with loans credit cards all that and then your big car payment at the end, your car loan.

I did not tell you my student loan. Oh, student loan. It's $11,000. It's how much? $11,000. $11,000, okay, okay. Yeah. Okay, so, Christian, are you single?

Family? I am. Married? Okay. No, I am. Okay, so, if i woke up in your shoes here's what i would do i would i would sell the car you're gonna have to take a small loan for the difference and so hopefully you can sell it for 30 000 and be underwater 10 000 that was the lower end um so we're gonna just we're gonna pray for that or find somebody that you'll buy it for $30,000.

You could even take out a little bit of a $13,000 loan because you'll take $3,000 of that. Go get yourself a beater replacement to get you through baby step two. What you're going to start to do is start working your way through these debts. Do you have any money saved at all? Any money that is not in retirement? No, no, not at all. Not at all. Okay. So what you're going to start to do, Christian, is I want you to create a budget, a monthly budget, and your income that is coming in, I want you to plan out exactly what you're going to spend in every category of your budget. And

this is everything from food to electricity. And you're going to take your lifestyle all the way down to just needs. So this is food, shelter, utilities, transportation, and that's it. Survival. Anything else, Christian, is going to go towards the smallest debt of $2,000, the credit card or the personal loan, whichever one you can decide. And you're going to pay it off. Then you're going to go and get two extra jobs. You're going to work extra jobs on the weekends. You're going to work extra jobs at night and

you're going to be so focused and so intense at attacking this debt. And the great thing is, there's all these little ankle biters. It's like $2,000, $2,000, $4,000. If you focus your money and you cut your lifestyle and you have this intense moment, you can start to pay this off. Hold on the line. Austin's going to pick up to give you Financial Peace University. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. So Dr. John Deloney is with me today as we're hosting. And one of the biggest questions that we get or issues that we get is when it comes to relationships and money. George Campbell and I did a whole podcast of Smart Money Happy Hour on this and awkward money conversations that happen between friends and family and all of it because it's just a part of life. And so when it comes to talking to your spouse about money, we've heard every story you could imagine.

We've heard every type of conversation you can imagine because of our jobs and people call in or tell us about them. And so we made a top 10 list of the top 10 worst ways to talk to your spouse about money. Well, I think this is this come from is this our do we make this list, James, or does this come from? We made it. It's our list. Okay. All right.

We compiled it. So do you want to go every other or you just a... We made it. It's our list. Okay. All right. We compiled it. Do you want to go every other or you just take it? Oh, we'll do every other. Okay. Because I know you say some of these too. Top 10 worst ways to talk to your spouse about money. Number 10, passive aggressively asking, how much did that cost after they bought something? I've done that.

Number nine. Okay. So here's what we're going to do. That's the worst. You've never said that. Said the most controlling person I know. All right. Number nine. Okay, so here's what we're going to do. That's the worst. You've never said that. Said the most controlling person I know. All right, number eight. Oh, gosh.

I said this exact one. Literally, I can buy a new guitar, and then I see the Publix receipt or the Costco receipt, and I ask my wife, why do we spend so much money on groceries? That's the worst. Dude. I want to punch every man that asks that uh number seven you just need to get on board with this plan again why don't I get all the controlling ones every other because of this providence how fate how fate province hey we need to get out of debt so i sold your car incredible well dave ramsey says

oh that is the worst dude yes it's weaponizing the old man all right uh number four oh geez i'm the one working so it's my money or alternatively you don't work so you don't get a vote if somebody says that just walk out that conversation's over just leave just leave i'm the one working not worth oh man uh number three for husbands to their wives do you really need that haircut or do you really need that skin product do you really need that makeup whatever it is fill in the blank of the things that ladies spend money on that men don't and they think or maybe it's a cost that much maybe my wife is the one that has those conversations with me oh man i like i like to be beautiful rachel my wife does

often say wow do we we need that huh that that's we need four separate creams for those for that cool um this is from the call back to the other day um when there was somebody who um whose husband wouldn't wouldn't help pay for the the delivery parts of the delivery because in his words his wife couldn't hold out for a few more hours so she got an epidural. Or, oh my gosh. And made her pay for the bill. Yeah, she had to pay for the bill. This was like on Reddit though, right?

Because she got a lactation expert. She got, like, had somebody come in and help with, you know, whatever. And he was like, hey, you got all these extra frills. You got to pay for those. Oh. Whoa. Extra frills.

It's like a mascara and an epidural not in the same category frills dude frill dude and last but not least oh no yeah i'm not seeing the roi on your gym membership that's brutal whoa that's brutal that's brutal um but yeah hey these are real these are real scenarios that we have that we have encountered in our not our personal lives not all of them but also in calls so hey if you have if you if you've got a thing that you've said that is dumb to your spouse and we've all said them um when it comes to money or if somebody has said a dumb thing to you go to the comments in the youtube section below this this clip and just give it to us what is what you have said that you know i shouldn't have said that or that somebody said to you go for it there's gonna be some good ones we'll read it at the end

if we can get a if we can get a live feed in here that's funny uh okay but john couples fight about money for multiple reasons um i would say one of the big ones i see is just different money tendencies when it comes to just even on basic things in life one tends to save more one turn one wants to spend more even what you spend the money on it's like well i don't value that well i value this and it's just this like hodgepodge of bringing who you are as a person to a relationship and then to your money and it creates a lot it can create a lot of a lot of arguments a lot of fights yeah or if you grew up in a house like i did where money was a scary scary topic that caused stress that's what i knew about money and so i don't like

to talk about it it makes me i just don't like talking about it. That has shown up in my marriage, right? Yep, yep. And also debt. Yeah. This is a big one. Shame, yeah. Yes, because not only mathematically and financially is the stress there of, oh my gosh,

we have to make all these bills and no one can lose a job and you're kind of just living on the edge. But what that creates in us, and you've talked about this a lot. You heard of that last caller, right? Yes. That was just-

The anxiety and then the shame and the guilt and the regret. All of that is very real. Yeah. And that fear about what's going to happen to me tomorrow. Yeah. It's terrifying stuff.

And when your spouse is kind of not supportive in it too, then it just, it magnifies it all. So what would you say are a couple of ways that you can talk to your spouse when it comes to money that actually will be productive and helpful and not harmful? I think anytime you have a hard conversation with somebody, especially with your spouse, especially about money, always start with I. And if you start a conversation with you need to, you've done,

this is just an instantaneous body response. They have to wall up and go to war back with you because they feel attacked. When I sit down and I don't say something like, how much did that cost? But I wait until I'm calm. And then I say, I'm feeling uncomfortable about fill in the blank.

I get scared about money and I take it out on when I see things like grocery costs or something. I just have this innate reaction. Can you teach me about how much groceries actually cost? But it's about me talking about how i feel not about lobbing grenades right so it's me going to the mirror first i think that's important i also think it's important to talk about as a couple here's where we want to go and we're going to reverse engineer where we want to be and here's the choices we need to make today so that we can get there that's different than sell the truck idiot right or dave ramsey says you gotta hey we we both want to be able to make sure our kids go to college and they don't have that like what do we need to do today to start that program that's so good because i think too

the stress and the fighting and the conflict all of that it feels so present it's like everything going on here and it almost is like this not in a fairy tale way but it's almost like a calming sense to be like hey we're not gonna stop focusing right now on today like let's look at the future what do we want right what do we want and then like you said out of that okay so then what are the choices today good but i feel like you it's so easy especially if you're stressed with money and you and your spouse are not on the same page it is easy to for it to be a complete craft show of yeah of being in the present and you can't you it's on the same page, it is easy for it to be a complete craft show of being in the present. And you can't, it's like you don't even have the capacity

to look up and look to the future. Yes, so something my wife tells me, if you Googled ADHD, my picture comes up next to that. And this is something that I got from the great Dr. Gabor Mate, but she said, and my wife will tell me often, when I'm walking out of the kitchen with a bowl of ice cream and gummy bears and marshmallows on top, she'll just gently and quietly put her hand on my arm and say, don't forget to remember.

And what she's reminding, she's not coming and saying, I can't believe you're eating that or you're going to sleep terrible, feel like crap. What she's saying is, don't forget to remember how good you're going to feel tomorrow if you don't eat all of that. And it's just a general reminder that future John has to pay the bill run up by present John, right? And so I think sometimes when I'm scrolling guitars, she can, I'm going to buy something else. I'm going to buy something else. She can gently walk by and say, Hey, don't forget to remember we got plans, you and me, right? We got plans down the road and let's make decisions today that are going to help us in the future. In the future. And look, and that is a level of peace that you can have and start working as a team together, focusing on the future and making those present decisions today. It's really good, John. This is The Ramsey Show.

With debt payments and now inflation stealing more and more of your paycheck, we know that a lot of you feel like you're drowning and you're scared to death that you're not going to have enough to take care of your family. And you shouldn't have to live with that kind of stress, you guys. But one thing that has to change is you have to be able to say, I've had it. I'm done.

I'm done living this way. And now I want wanna start new things with my, I wanna start doing new things with my money, changing what I've been doing. So when you get to that point of change, so you said, I'm willing to try something new, that means it is time for Financial Peace University. This is our nine lesson course

that will teach you how to beat debt, build wealth, and it's everything that you need to know about how to handle money. Nearly 10 million people have taken Financial Peace University, and they will tell you that it is so worth it because they don't worry about money like they used to. They are in control, and you can be too. So decide that you are done stressing about money and take control. Start Financial Peace University today at RamseySolutions.com slash FPU. That's RamseySolutions.com slash FPU. And next we have Nick in New York, New York.

Hey, Nick. Welcome to the show. Hey, Rachel. Hey, John. First time calling and it's a pleasure to speak to both of you. Absolutely. Well, thanks for calling. How can we help? Okay. So I was very lucky to find you guys

almost right after college and you guys have turned me a little bit into a financial planning addict, I would say. So basically I'm at a point in my life where I just turned 30 last week and I'm in a home where I have the opportunity to save pretty aggressively. And my five to maybe seven year plan is to kind of increase in house once I have a family. And where I'm at, you know, the average house that I'm kind of looking to get into eventually would be like in the 600 to 700 range. Um, so my, my main question is, is there ever consideration or, or, um, a situation in which it would be okay to scale back the 401k contribution a little bit, if I'm pretty maybe ahead of where, um, you know, maybe the average person is in that area. So that way I can kind of save up more for, you know, the upcoming, more current future before retirement. Yeah, I mean, I would say my, the black and white answer is yes, because we talk about Baby Step 3B,

which is actually pausing retirement to save up for a good down payment. So we recommend that people do that in general. Are you thinking that you're wanting to save up for a good down payment. So we recommend that people do that in general. Are you thinking that you're, you're wanting to save up for the down payment or are you thinking like save up for the whole thing? So I'm I already have a home right now. It's worth 400 and I have 240 left on the mortgage. So I don't,

I didn't know if slowing down on the, the retirement investment, you know, made sense if it's kind of for a second home and it's not just to get into the first home. But based on where I am with like certain numbers, I was kind of thinking maybe it's okay to just slow a little bit on retirement if I'm at a good spot and kind of prioritize the here and now a little bit more in the next couple of years to, you know, kind of get into a home that would make sense for my future family. Absolutely. And you're talking about your primary home, right? When you, not a second home. Yes. So you would sell the current home that you're in, roll over what you have in savings with the equity and purchase a new home here in the next few years. That's what you're thinking, right? Yep. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, I'm great with that, honestly, because, you know, we talk about, and I'm assuming you're thinking, right? Yep. Yeah. Exactly. So yeah, I, I'm great with that, honestly, because, um, you know, we, we talk about, and I'm assuming you're debt-free

and have an emergency fund. Correct. Yes. So yeah, I'm, I'm great with that, Nick. Um, I think being able to, to put some momentum towards that home, but I would have a, i wouldn't let this just yeah go into a black hole yeah so have like an end date that you know hey in the next three years i'm going to pause retirement to save up for a big down payment or maybe all of it you know depending on if you can if you can pull that off uh with the sell sell sale of your home your current home uh but i would have a i would have a pretty strict timeline nick so nick i i, I did this and when I was working at a job that I had, housing was part of the package. And then when I took another job and I had to save up, my wife and I just took two years to save up money so we could put a huge

chunk in. We were ahead on our retirement, which was fine. That two years turned into two and a half years, almost three years. And when then they started taking retirement back out, it felt like someone was stealing from me. And so have a firm number. I would love to see you pause and maybe sprint and pay your house off that you have right now, something like that.

Then be putting money in one place over on, in your left hand, put some money in this account over here and then saving secretly over here and not doing retirement. It feels like you're trying to do a lot of things at once. I'd love to see you like, okay, I'm going to take 18 months sprint and pay my house off. I'm going to pause on, on, on this and I'm gonna get it done. Or I'm going to pause and do this, right? You see what I'm saying? That there's a, there's Like Rachel said, there's a finish line here because I'm telling you, I've just done it and it's hard. It's hard to, that finish line keeps moving

because it's fun to keep your whole check. It's just the future, John, has to pay that bill, right? Yeah, that's a great point. How much do you make a year, Nick? Yeah, so between me and my wife, we're roughly in the 180 to 190 range. Okay. And yeah, basically we have two 40 left on our mortgage.

And then, um, I'm, I'm projecting that for the next five years. I mean, obviously this is without kids, but, um, as of right now I can save roughly four grand a month, um, in my current situation. Okay. And I currently have 90 and a 401k and 50 in just a brokerage account. So maybe that gives a little context to where I am. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Because I mean, you could, you know, within three or four years, like John's saying, focus on that and then take a paid for home. And then even at that point, Nick, I would wonder, again,

depending on your situation with family and everything, once you have a paid off home, it is really nice. And maybe you're like, oh, maybe we just stay in this for a little bit longer than what we even planned on doing. Because what you're going to do is you're going to end up putting X number of dollars towards your current mortgage. You're going to put a little pocket of money for some future house that you don't live in yet that you might move into five years from now. My wife and I also, we made this big declaration. We're going to put a little pocket of money for some future house that you don't live in yet that you might move into five years from now. My wife and I also, we made this big declaration. We're going to start having kids.

And it was almost four years before we were blessed with my son. And so we had these plans. They just didn't work out. And so I'd love to see you say, okay, here's what's right in front of us. Let's take three years and work like crazy and pay this house off. And then let's start trying to have a family. And then let's make a decision after we're holding baby number one, because maybe wife doesn't want to work anymore after baby number one, or you don't want to work anymore after baby number one. And you have all these different options when you have a paid for house. You can do it. I mean, really, you can do

whatever you want. And you can sell that house and roll all that equity into a bigger home if that's what you want to do. That's right. That's right. Yep. It's like that savings is within the home and it keeps you on plan for the home. All right. Up next, we have Brandon in Orlando. Hey, Brandon, welcome to the show. Hey, how are y'all doing today? Doing great. How can we help? Good. Kind of two different questions here. I'm wanting to know, is there some sort of budget for an unstable income? I hate to admit this, but I'm 36 years old, and my wife and I have never really had an actual budget. And we're struggling with this, and we make enough money to sustain our bills.

We do have some consumer debt. We have a mortgage mortgage all these things um we don't struggle to pay them but our savings account and checking account pretty much stay the same all the time they never go up or they never yeah they'll go down when a bill comes out okay so brandon real quick uh i'm up against the clock so i want to make sure i answer your question how much does does it fluctuate? Give me the highest month and the lowest month for you guys. Month? Last month, I made $24,000, and this month, I haven't worked. Okay.

What do you do? I'm a lineman. Okay. Do you know ahead of time? When you look throughout the year, can you see seasonality of, yes, I know these months are going to be nothing. These months are going to be huge. Somewhat, for the most part, yes.

Okay. So what I would do, Brandon, is because it fluctuates that much, what you guys want to do is have a budget that is consistent. And Austin's going to pick up so you guys can do every dollar and start on that. But have something that's like, hey, you can't be the lowest month because it's zero. But say, hey, here's our expenses. Here's basically what we need to live off of. And then to be stocking away when it's these big months. And then when it comes to the months with nothing you can pull. But I would still keep my lifestyle to a degree that's basically just needs. So that way

you can at least get momentum of seeing something move in your checking account and your savings account. So hold on the line and Austin is going to pick up. Thanks, Brandon, for the call. This is The Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I am Rachel Cruz hosting this hour with Dr. John Deloney. And we have our question of the day. And our question is brought to you by Neighborly. It's your hub for home services. So when you need to make repairs, schedule routine maintenance, or find local help for home improvement projects, Neighborly is your source for reliable home service providers in your area. Go to neighborly.com to start your search. All right, today's question comes from Anthony in Michigan.

Anthony writes, I just started listening to your show. I'm 42 and divorced, and I have $73,500 in consumer debt. After making minimum payments, rent, and child support, I have about $900 left over. It seems like it will take me about six plus years to get this mess cleaned up and another one plus years to build an emergency fund, then two to three more years to save for a house. At that point, I will be 53 years old. I have $0 for retirement.

It's overwhelming and I feel hopeless. My question is, how do I hold on to hope as I work through this debt? That's heavy, man. Like, I feel that. I feel that. Oh, it's a lot. It's a lot.

So, I mean, Anthony, honestly, this isn't the kind nice this is the math side so you can take the nice relational side of this john but you know money flows two ways money flows in and money flows out and so with this we can't change the equation that you're in right your your payments are what they are your rent is what it is uh you know obviously unless you choose to live somewhere else child support is going to be what it is. So the biggest thing that you can affect is your income and then any other expenses that

you didn't list here. But your income is going to be it. And the way that we see people move the needle on a large amount of debt is they go crazy, not just on their lifestyle, but they bring in so much income that they really do have a diligence to dedicate that income towards their debt. So Anthony, yeah, if I were you, I would be taking on a second, third job.

And again, it's just for a season because if you could double that 900 a month and do a side gig, everything, yeah, everything gets cut in half, basically your timeline. And so working at that, because three years sounds a whole lot better than six years to pay off the debt. And during that time,

you probably will get a raise in your current job, right? Or a bonus, like things happen in life and you just designate all that money. So I would be looking to see how can I make an extra $1,000 a month or more and start chipping away at this debt. Yeah. Because then it's going to free up all that money to save up your emergency fund that much faster. The hard part about this job is when I feel like I'm out of options, then a caller calls in and says, Hey, I, on the way to the office every

day, I pick up an Uber or two and I make 75 or a hundred bucks just on the way to work. And then I make 75 or a hundred bucks on the way home from work. I just do that every day. And I think, yeah, but what about my precious commute time? That's just my only me time. This person wants out of debt really bad. Or the person who's an exhausted single mom who's got two kids who thankfully has a neighbor that will keep and is working because I'm going to sacrifice these two years so I can have all these other years, right? So I feel like every day I come to work and there's somebody else taking away my excuse, somebody else saying, no, I figured out a way. And so I think Anthony,

it's really easy to look at this. The way you've laid this out is actually right. It's, and it's scary and it's sad and it's okay to be scared. It's okay to be sad. And then you got to go do the next right thing. And the next right thing is, okay, how do I cut this thing in half? What if we re-imagine this where I can cut it in half and I am done in five years, I'm 47, or I'm done in three years, how much money would I have to make every month? And how can I, I will figure out a way to make this happen. Even if I got to rent a garage, just sleep in the garage with my friends, whatever, like whatever you got to do. i like to see that kind of attitude and as rachel said like man we just there's 30 years of people saying enough is enough is enough and they do some

wild things they do some wild things making extra money and again it sounds so extreme and so crazy but this isn't forever we're not telling people to live like this for the next 20 30 years of their life it's literally for two to three years it It's like you're just going to buckle down and anyone can do it. It's exhausting. It's hard. But we have people every show, almost every show on that debt free stage screaming and telling their story about what they've done to get out of debt. And it looks crazy. People think they're crazy. But man, that's the end result. There is a level of freedom, not just emotionally and all that,

but the financial part. I'm like, you have money again. You know, that money is not going out. That $900 is not going out in payments. It is staying with you. And so then you're able to scale back and actually create a life that you love. So thanks so much for the question.

It's awesome. Up next, we have Christine in Atlanta, Georgia. Hey, Christine, welcome to the show. Hey, how are y'all doing today? We're doing great. How can we help? Okay, so I'm a widow recently. Well, a year and a half ago.

I'm 54. Thank you. So I wasn't really working at the time my husband passed because I, my mom died four months before he did. And I was in, you know, taking care of her. So I wasn't really working, but I, you know, I do have a real estate license. I'm a realtor. So I'm back working now. So it's just slow going. So I feel like I made a mistake when I did get a small amount of life insurance, I did pay off my house. So I am debt free. I have no debt, uh, except for my monthly expenses, which really concerns me because it's around

four grand. And right now I have, you know, $280,000 in a savings account and $100,000 in a Roth IRA, $40,000 in my checking account. But I'm not making money consistently and I'm just wanting to know what I need to do with that $280,000 because it's just an account that's making 3.6% interest rate.

Do you have kids in the home? Why are your expenses so high? Well, it's like all these, you know, well, I've added in my property taxes, like what that would be for the year. I've added in my HOA. Even though I pay it yearly, I just did it like what it would be monthly.

You know, car insurance, home insurance, health insurance. I mean, everything starts adding up, you know, it's crazy. So all in, it's about $48,000. How much are you making a year doing real estate? I know you're just kind of getting back. I'm just getting back in it. So like, you know, it's like, I haven't even been in it like really a full year to tell you that sure well you came back and the whole industry's on fire right so welcome back no exactly so you know like this month my you know i had four closings it was twenty thousand dollars next month it's eight you know it's like eight thousand dollars or you know eight to twelve thousand but you know i just have like a closings, so I don't have anything set.

So I'm just concerned what I need to do to maximize. I don't have any kids. I just have a dog, which is like a toddler. So I'm just really trying to be smart and not wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning like, oh my gosh how am i going to do this because you know what i mean yes and i think um a lot of the fear though christine is not is not real we get a lot of calls on the show where people are in a lot a big mess financially and that's part of us helping out you're not christine i mean you have four thousand

dollars a month in expenses the numbers you just threw out was $12,000 a month. I think you said $24,000. You're throwing out these numbers that beyond can pay for your expenses. Yeah, but it's like feast or famine. Yes, okay. Well, except that in real estate, you're slowly building a reputation and slowly building a book of business.

So my expectation for you would be, absent a complete total housing market meltdown, is that people are going to have a great experience with you. And then their friends are going to call. And then their friends are going to call. And that's just, I mean, I've referred my realtor to everyone I know because she did such a great job for me. Yeah. So Christine, what I would do, hold on the line,

Austin's going to pick up and we're going to get you in with every dollar to do a budget, but I would put $25,000 in a savings account and it's an emergency fund and it's there. You're not going to touch it unless God forbid one month, you need to pull a little bit of cash out to help cover expenses. But that is your safety net. You need some money designated as a safety net, I think, to help you sleep at night to know if something happens, I have that money there. So I hope that helps, Christine. Thanks for calling. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's Rachel Cruz. If you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started

on the Ramsey baby steps, go to ramsesolutions.com and click the get started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. That's ramsesolutions.com and click get started.