The Ramsey Show - App - Protect Yourself and Your Money (Hour 2)

Episode Date: June 13, 2024

from the Ramsey Network you're listening to the Ramsey show where we help people build wealth do work that they love and create actual amazing relationships'm your host. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me is Ken Coleman. We'll be taking your calls all afternoon long. Give us a call. You can talk about your life, talk about your money. We'll give our best take on your situation and try to help you out. And, you know, Dave Ramsey used to say, some say the advice is what you pay for it.

Yes. It's true. Give us a call. The number is 888-825-5225 and we'll do our very very best we've got dawn who's in new haven connecticut what's going on dawn hey guys thanks so much for taking my call um my question is this we've my husband and i have been following your plan for about since about 2008. We have achieved a net worth of just over 2 million. Wow. And yeah, yeah, we're pretty excited. We just hit that recently. Congratulations.

Thank you. And we're wondering, how do we protect what we've accumulated? It's kind of a litigious world out there, and we're not really sure if there's anything that you can advise us on that might be helpful. Let's start with, where are you concerned that you might get attacked? In order to ask a question like that, how do I protect myself? Yep, absolutely. Nothing going on at present, but my thought was, you know, you get into a car accident, you're, we have good insurance, but there are limitations to that. Um, or you own a property, someone has some sort of an accident, they turn around, they sue you. And yeah, we do have an umbrella policy for a million dollars in addition to our insurance. But we're 54 and we can continue to grow our wealth.

And as it grows, it feels like our insurance isn't going to grow with that. Or maybe it will. I'm not sure. Okay. This is new territory. Really good questions, Dawn. And just to let you know, your phone's breaking up a little bit. So make sure you're in a spot where we can really hear you. It just sounded like, it sounds like you've got all the right things in place because I would have suggested an umbrella policy on up to a

million bucks, which is just right. You know, long-term disability is something that you can consider if you don't already have that in place. It sounds like you've got the right auto coverage. If you wanted to, you could go on ramseysolutions.com and do the coverage checkup. And just, it literally goes line by line through all of the different coverage that you should have and the amount that you should be covered for. So that's really good.

It sounds more like you're worried about somebody suing you than you are something kind of outside happening that's random that you can't pay for, like a health thing. Is that right? That's correct. And we've had Zander Insurance, the identity insurance plan for years, which is great. We do have disability insurance. We've got term life insurance in place.

So I feel like we've got a pretty good amount of protection. I will definitely check the website. No, you're stacked up. I think you're great. Here's the thing. I think $2 million in net worth is amazing. I mean, do you guys, if you had properties or something and you wanted to drop those into, you know, LLCs to protect those

and kind of have them individualized, you could do that. Do you recommend that for your primary residence? Say that again? Do you recommend that for your primary residence? I wouldn't. It's not something that we would say here, but if you had, you know, if you were saying, hey, my net worth is comprised of all these separate real estate deals, then that might be something you look into. But it doesn't sound like it. It sounds like you guys, for lack of a better word, are just everyday folks. And you've done well with your money.

And you've got nice, strong 401ks and investing. And for that reason, I don't think there's as much of a target on your back as you think. My guess is, to look at you, Dawn, no one would go, that's who we need to go after. You know what I mean? Right? I mean, am I wrong? I don't know.

Maybe you, if you're flashing your wallet and, you know, flashing cash all the time, but I don't think that's you. No, we live very conservatively. I mean, our condo's under 400,000. We drive, you know, used cars. They're decent, nothing fancy. Yeah, we're pretty conservative. Do you have a property? One of the scenarios you gave us was a property. If somebody gets hurt on your property, does that even exist? It does. So, well, it's possible if someone was, say, inside our condo and something happened, we do have our previous primary residence.

We converted to a rental and just found out about the two and five rules. So we are selling that property. Um, and that aside from a new rental property that my Roth IRA owns, which I am also selling, that's it for investment properties. And we just kind of want to take a beat after that. We did attend the Ramsey investment webinar a couple weeks back, which was really enlightening. And I was at my husband, I said, we're never doing this the wrong way again. We're following Dave's plan. He's gotten us this far. Let's keep going. And we're following Dave's plan. He's gotten us this far. Let's keep going. And we're both 100% in agreement with that. Listen, I agree with everything that Jade said. I personally

know Jeff Zander. I've known Jeff for a long time. And if I were in your situation, because I get to know Jeff, I'd call Jeff and Jeff would probably tell me who to talk to in his shop. But I would just call Zander and talk to them and just say here are my concerns just walk through your situation with xander you're a client of theirs correct did i hear you say that i am yeah yeah we are you know jade and i have an opinion but they're on the ground experts and it's who we trust and it's who i use so i'd call them and walk them through this and go i just want to make sure that I'm not wringing my hands and clutching my pearls unnecessarily. And I think when they walk you through all that, everything that you've got from a specific

insurance standpoint, along with the coverage check, I think this is a little more nuanced with your question. So do both things. And I think you're going to sleep great tonight. I think so too. Well done. You're a person who dots their I's and crosses their T's. I mean, no doubt about that.

Very, very good. Very good question. It's almost like we're to a point where if I had some land like that, I was just sitting here thinking while you were talking to her. I was like, I'd have a lawyer draw up some type of something. So I have to sign a disclaimer if I step foot on your land? Let's say I had some land and you and Sam come out you know and we're riding four-wheelers or who knows i'm making all this up riding four-wheelers so that's why i said playing pickleball yeah i like

pickleball right but it's like yeah if if if a legitimate insurance expert said you probably don't have to do it but you could but we just live in a world today where you know i get the point of the call here you know if you've got strangers somebody cleans your house acquaintances and it's like yeah yeah i'd probably have people sign stuff too to go listen you know if you do something dumb and you get hurt i'm not paying for it yeah i mean that's what the umbrella policy is for. That's true. I think she's fine.

I'm just bringing it up. I think she's fine too. I think she's extra scared. But you know why? Because she's worked so hard and you acknowledge the fact that they've worked so hard to get where they are. She's like, I don't want some jerk coming along and trying to take some of my nest egg. That's true.

The thing though is with most of our everyday baby steps millionaires, it's not like a flashy thing. Like you can't. There's more people driving around in expensive cars that you would think had a high network that's actually broke. Yeah. Than the people who really do have a net worth. And they're driving a used paid for vehicle that looks, you know, completely unassuming. They're wearing, you know, normal jeans that they got from Target. You know, it's not, no one would know.

So I don't think anybody's, you know, drafting a plan to get at them, you know, and take their money, take them for all they're worth. So I think she's done a good job and she's trying to be a good steward and good on her for doing that, Dawn. Thanks for the call. This is The Ramsey Show. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I don't know about you, Ken,

but I feel like the last couple of calls we've gotten have had something to do with protections. Yes. Making sure that an inheritance is safe, making sure that the money and the net worth that we've amassed is safe, making sure that my identity is safe. It all has to do with insurance.

And everybody wants to have the right insurances. After all, insurance is there to mitigate risk, right? Whether it's health insurance, home insurance, renter's insurance, all of these things are out there to protect you in case a cost comes up that you yourself cannot cover, your insurance is there to kind of fill that gap for you. And it can be very confusing to navigate all of the insurances and going through, I don't

know, Ken, that is something that if we start talking about insurance, my eyes glaze over and I want someone to handle it for me. Yes, I would concur. And so our Ramsey Trusted Pros, they shop the market and they compare all the insurance quotes so that you don't have to and so that I don't have to. And your pro will compare the quotes. They'll look at the discounts and they will bundle the deals for you at no extra cost, which is great. When my husband and I moved here, Ken, we were in a new house.

We had to have the housing insurance for that. We needed to get the umbrella coverage and all that. And they shopped all the quotes. They rolled it into one nice, neat bow. And we got more coverage for less money. Like that. I love that. So Ramsey Trusted Pros will make sure you have all the coverage you need and nothing that you don't.

So there's not going to be any fluff here. Ramsey Trusted Pros, they're interviewed, they're vetted, and they're coached to make sure that they're market experts. And here's the best part. They truly do have your best interest at heart. I've experienced that, Ken. I know that you have experienced that. So the question you need to be asking yourself is, do you have the right coverage based on your individual needs? And so to do that, go to ramseysolutions.com slash coverage. Again, that's ramseysolutions.com slash coverage. And let me just add, because I hear it in the wind, insurance, guys, is not a baby step, okay? It's not something that you wait until you're after, you know, after you've paid off your debt

or after you've saved up your savings to do. Insurance is something that you do the moment that you've learned about it. And so if you've been listening to savings to do insurance is something that you do the moment that you've learned about it. And so if you've been listening to the show for a couple of segments or even just this one segment and you're like, oh, you know what? I don't have life insurance. That is your signal that you need to act on that today, not once you've paid your debt off, okay? If you don't have health insurance, check out Health Trust. That's the partnership that we have. You need health insurance today. If you're a renter and you don't have renter's insurance, this is your sign from, oh, this is your sign. You need renter's insurance. You and make sure that you are covered because if you get in an accident and your coverage isn't what you thought it would be, you're about to be up a

creek without a paddle. So please, please, please prioritize this in your every dollar budget. It is so, so very important to get the coverage you need today. Our Ramsey Trusted Pros will help you do that. All right, let's go to the phone lines. Tyler in Buffalo, New York is here. What's going on, Tyler? Hi, how are we doing today? Doing good. How can we help? Hi. So I'm looking into possibly starting up a home inspector's business come this winter here, and I was just curious on what the right steps would be to do that. All right. So home inspection. Why'd you pick that problem or that solution? What drew you to that?

I guess the big part that came out of it is the flexibleness. Because I have a job right now that's kind of seasonal. It pays very well with the seasons on, but then wintertime you don't have hardly anything going on. Okay. All right. And what's the homes inspection business

like in the brutal winters of Buffalo? I'm guessing you Buffalo folks, I mean, you just know how to handle that kind of snow. I mean,

you guys were in the news last year during the football season, crazy snow. Is it a normal rhythm and there is not a big drop-off in the wintertime in Buffalo as it relates to home inspection? Nothing too crazy.

Good. At that time right there, I actually live south of Buffalo, and there's a lot of new builds going on. Okay, good. So there's a lot of possibility for it. You have a background and some expertise, some skill set that lends itself to doing that well? I did plumbing for about five years.

I've shat on an electrician. I've worked with carpenters. When it comes to the nuts and bolts of it, I know fairly well. Trust me, you had me at plumbing. I was like, okay, you've got the skill set for that. You enjoy the work. It can be a pretty good business. I mean, you can build this thing to where it could

replace your seasonal income. So I'm not seeing any red flags on this. How much is it going to cost for you to get qualified to do that? Is it a certification? Yes. The bits I've looked into, you know, you can go online and file through a course, and um that right there is roughly probably about 2500 2500 bucks do you have the cash for that yes all right uh i like that so no red flag there um and is the market saturated is the market moderate as it relates to people out there that are your competitors uh or is there hardly anybody doing it um in my micro area there's there's two and um they you know honestly the quality of the work they do it's not very well and you know it's something i actually seen an issue when i was working on the trade still

okay so you've heard this from viable sources that these guys or gals aren't doing a good job? Yes, and even seeing it myself. Are they covered up in business or what's their business like, the flow of business? They seem to stay fairly steady, but at the same time, the exact grid, I'm unsure. What's your gumption level as it relates to talking to realtors bankers mortgage pros are you a guy that'll get out and connect and shake people's hand look them in the eye and go i'm the newest home inspector on the block and i come from the trades and i'm telling you my competition they ain't so good i'm fantastic give me a shot are you willing to do that absolutely all right jade i ran him through my questions i turned the balance of my time over to you.

You used the word gumption. I love that word. Gumption. I love that. The reason I asked that question, Tyler, is because this is a business where you, sir, are the product. That's right. Jade and I are in that same business. Jade's the product.

I'm the product. So you've got to have that gumption necessary to put yourself out there. And the realtors that you want to work with are going to be the type who are doing high volume because they're going to be able to give you a lot of work. And if they're high volume realtors, they know how to talk. They know how to command a room. They know how to, you know, their BS level is very low, right? So it's like this guy, you know, but if you come in there and you're like, listen, we need to work together. Here's why I love that. So my question that I, the only question I wrote down, which I kind of feel like that's what we're into now is how do you get clients? Like,

what's the strategy for you to go in there? Because it's not like you're trying to railroad anybody or, you know, you're not intentionally trying to like steal anybody's clients, but at the same time you want the work. Does that make sense? So it's like, how do you see yourself getting in there and kind of pulling the boat close to the dock and getting those clients? I see. That's, that's one thing I'm kind of unsure of. I, I don't know really where to start with it. I wasn't sure if it's something you get in, get in with the banks or, you know, you contact realtors or if it's just a matter of, you know, just talking to everybody you can to get your name out there okay well it's the list that i ran

through earlier but um uh i would start with the your mortgage your mortgage companies in the area they're the ones that when a house is going for refinance or the actual initial financing uh they are the ones that are getting the home inspector out i know when i've refied the company i refied with they're the one that chose the they have their guys and they get their gals. Okay. So for certain, for certain mortgage, I would check on the real realtor side. I'm going to say, I don't know. I think that's more of a mortgage play. Okay. Because again, the mortgage company are the ones, the banks, they're the ones that need to know what the house situation is. Now, realtors do it as well. I'm not saying realtors don't, but I'm saying realtors and

mortgage companies, when they do refinancing, they'll have a... I'm sorry, I've confused the whole situation. You're talking about home inspection. I apologize. I got in my head home appraisal. Sorry, mortgage companies are appraisers. That's right. Okay. Home inspection is realtor. You're right. My brain just got all cobwebby. That's all right, Ken. I got the broom out. You're all swept clean. Appraisals, so home appraisers, that's different than the home inspector. So realtors, realtors, realtors. All dead. And hey, listen, can we tell them, Tyler, if I were you, I'd start with the website ramsaysolutions.com and find

those pros. That's it. That's a goldmine right there. Start calling them and go, I called the Ramsey show. I'm a big Ramsey listener and you are a trusted pro. Can we talk? Can I help you? So that's where I would go.

Look at this guy. Come on, Kim. I had to get the cobwebs out of the way first. It's what he does. It's what he does. You're listening to The Ramsey Show. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me is Ken Coleman. Let's go. Best-selling author of many books, but most recently Find the Work You're Wired to Do, home

of the Get Clear Career Assessment, which is very, very great. Very fun. Very fun tool. And it's always good to be with you. By the way, you're a bestselling author too. Yeah. Money's not a math problem. Pick it up. You can find them all at ramsaysolutions.com slash store. Get into it. Get involved. I want to get involved with these phone lines. And by the way, if you want to get involved with us, call us. The number is 888-825-5225. And we will pick up your call. Let's pick up Alicia's call. Alyssa, actually, is how we're going to pronounce that. Green Bay, Wisconsin. What's going on, Alyssa? Hi, thanks so much for taking my call. Did I say it right? It's Alyssa.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You did. Yeah. Thanks. So I have another insurance question for you. Wow. It's the day of insurances. Wow. All right. Hit us with it. So mine's about life insurance. So my husband and I were actually in disagreement on how much we should have. Okay. So, and we're actually on the same page about most everything else when it comes to finances, but this one, you know, so I'll just lay it out. Yeah. What does he think? Yeah. How much? Okay. So we both right now have 500,000 on each of us and he is completely fine with that. Okay. And I used to be, but then I've been listening to you guys a lot more, and now I know that it should be 10 to 12 times our annual income. That's right. And so we're just not at enough, and he is like, not about it. Well, this makes him wrong, and this makes you right.

Well, yeah, I agree with Ken, and let's talk deeply about it. The purpose of insurance is to, if something, God forbid, were to happen to either of you, anybody that's dependent on your income, they will be set up, right? And it's not just for the moment, it's ongoing. And so what's your income and what's his income? So mine's right at about $100 and his is about $130. Okay, so yours is at $ hundred, his is at 130. So if something, God forbid were to happen to you, he's, he's got five year salary basically, but you're saying,

Hey, I'd love for this to be even better. I'd love for you to be that. If we do what I'm saying, which is you'd have, you know, over a million dollars of coverage. 2.5 is what I'm recommending. I'm bumping it up. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Cause you got them at 230 combined 2.5 is what I'm recommending. I'm bumping it up. Okay, yeah, okay. Because you got them at 230 combined income. Yeah, but I'm saying individual policies. Right. I know, but my total is going to be 2.5 between the two of them. Yes, exactly.

That's all I'm saying. Exactly. But if something were to happen to you, like for you to be able to provide 10, basically 10 years of your salary to him, what a great gift. Yeah. I mean, that allows and vice versa. So what's the difference? Like he's probably thinking about quarterly payments or monthly payments. What does this look like? Have you priced out the numbers with Xander?

Yeah, actually I did. And so basically like he thinks it's a waste of money. And honestly, we probably would have none if it weren't for we're in the military. So we have to take that 500 each. OK. And so thank goodness. But I know. And he does have a point. Like he says, you know, like if if one of us were to pass the other one, you know, with

that 500, like could easily pay off everything. And then we each make enough to like, you know, live our, with our daily expenses. So I get it. But I was telling him, cause I heard you say actually not that long ago. Um, and it kind of made me like really look into this and like, be like, wow, I never thought about this before. Cause we'd always had that same mindset as like he has now. But you said, um, you know, the intent is that if they pass, it's not just to like, oh, here, pay off your debt. And like not a retirement plan. It's like, hey, invest this. And then the interest should pretty much make up for the income that you're losing. And I was like,

oh, my goodness, that makes so much sense. So I really want to do it. Yeah. But he is like, he just doesn't, he thinks it's a waste of money. And of course, like he jokes when I mention it and he's like, you know what? I'm not going to die until we're way older anyway. So it doesn't even matter. And I'm like, well, I love your confidence. That makes me a little uncomfortable almost. I think he's uncomfortable. I think the whole, like you said, it's the 500.

It's part of work. It's required. So in many ways for him that was a no-brainer but when it's time to actually turn on the you know turn on the lights in his brain and start thinking about it's an uncomfortable conversation you're talking about what happens when you you know kick the bucket and that's not i i'd flip this i'd flip this on him uh i think he's a real cavalier about this I think he's too cavalier about it to be completely honest um but okay play it his way go all right I did the numbers I did the ran the numbers got some quotes from Xander let me show you the quotes and since you're okay if I die just living with the 500 turns out I'm okay with that too. But, tell you where I'm not okay.

If you die early, Sparky McGee, I don't think 500 is enough for my safety gland. And I got some numbers I ran. And I'm pretty much telling you that we need to do this. I'm not asking your permission. I'm just getting you to buy in from my piece of mind and i'd lay the real numbers out which by the way i'm just curious what would it what would the total increase be year over year with the numbers you got from xander i'm just curious i want to know too okay yeah and actually i was really impressed um so i did a quote on just mine for another 500 because

that would put me at a million perfect um and And that's only going to be like $17 a month. What? So I go back to Sparky, and I'm sorry I'm calling your husband Sparky, but he's kind of irritated me a little bit, and I'm trying to be nice. I'd go back to him and go, hey, listen, I know you're good with the 500K. If I kick the bucket early, I'm not. I just bumped it up to what this guy Dave Ramsey's been teaching for decades, and it's $17.

I mean, come on. That's one drive-thru. That's one time through the drive-thru for the month. Yeah, that's two Starbucks. You know, come on. So I would just present it that way and say, I'm doing this. Yeah. Yes, Ken.

Oh, by the way. Well, we do have to agree on everything. Like, that is something that we persist in. Oh, I'm doing this. Yeah. Yes, Ken. Oh, by the way. Well, we do have to agree on everything. Like, that is something that we Oh, I know. I know. I'm having some fun with this. I'm not. I know. But we're also talking about $17 a month. I don't think this is a knockdown drag out is my point.

Is he being stingy? Are you guys still in debt? Is that why he's being kind of tight with the purse strings? Okay, yes, we are. We do have debt, but it is not out of control. Okay. Is he super tight? Yes.

And the thing is, it's not that I don't understand it and I value it and everything, but I just think that he thinks it's unnecessary, So we are not about unnecessary spending. And I would get him like, no, we're completely covered. Like, like he is like, oh no, like, you know, if, if the 500,000, that would take care of everything. And we both make enough income that like all of our, you know, monthly expenses are good. There's just no reason for it. Let's go back to the basics of this. We need to,

and this is what you tell him and Hey, play the call him. And hey, play the call. Like this is documented. Oh, I can't wait. Sorry, sorry, man, for calling you sparky. So here's the thing. Let's go back to the basics on this because when we, what we teach here, right? The baby steps and getting out of debt. The whole entire purpose is to change your family tree.

It's all legacy built at the end of the day. It provides peace now, but it's also providing peace for the future and for the people that come after you. And such a huge part of that is insurance until you can self-insure because we're building wealth, not just for us, but to be able to pass down. And until you can self-insure, depending on insurance companies to help you with that is such a huge part of the wealth building process for you. Because again, I hope you guys live until, be as old as Methuselah.

I don't care, live as long as you want. But if for some reason you don't, this is here. It's kind of just that fail safe that kicks in and to spend Sparky, marky mark biff whatever your name is to spend the extra 17 dollars bud it's 204 a year it's 204 dollars to make sure your family has half a million more for by the way for your peace of mind i keep playing that card i wasn't i was having fun with it but i I'm not joking around. He's tight. Play to that. Go, you're tight because you're fearful about money and stuff. And I appreciate that. There you go, Ken. But guess where I'm tight? I'm nervous about this. And it's $204 a

month. So go, so you know what? Yes, we got to be in agreement. I'd say Sparky, it's time to have a new budget meeting. We have, it's like calling Congress back for a special session. We're having a special mid-month budget meeting, and I am going to find $17 a month to make sure that I'm not stressed out when you die early because you drink too much Diet Coke or whatever. Sorry, Diet Coke drinkers. You mean sorry, Sparky. Sparky. We love you, Sparky. We want the best for you. We do love you. Help your wife out, dude. Come on.

This is The Ramsey Show. You are listening to The Ramsey Show. Thanks for listening. I'm Jade Warshaw. Next to me is Ken Coleman taking your calls. Let's get into this Ramsey Show question of the day. Today it comes from our buddy Robert who's in Dallas, Texas. He asked, my wife and I started a pest control company three years ago when I left the military.

We've always had the dream of starting our own business and taking control of our lives. Growth in our first three years has been good, but the seasonal aspect and weather dependent demand caused me to continue working full-time in another career. With only so much time in the day, I fear we are treating this business like a side hustle when it has become much more than that. My question is, how do you balance both or know when it is time to dive into your business full-time? Well, I have a simple, simple equation on this. It's not actually an equation. It's just a number. Robert, when you can bring in what you were making in your day job in this pest control business, so in other words, you can pay yourself what this other company is paying you, that's when I'd go full-time. And I would add one small caveat to that. I'd like to see six months at minimum of your salary in the pest control bank account. So I kind of, it's like a version of the emergency fund that we teach in our baby steps.

Yes. But I want to see someone who's walking from a day job where they're getting paid by somebody else. They got health care and all the things and and they're going to go to their own business, I want six to 12 months, somewhere in there, of your salary in the bank account so that you don't walk from the day job into this thing, work for yourself, and you're stressed out of your mind. That's how you turn a dream into a nightmare. So in this situation, I don't know from this email if in fact he's done this. And the seasonal issue is what's telling me that's why he stayed in the other career is because it's

not making enough money due to the seasonal. So what you got to do is be patient. You got to build it up. And I would also point out, he's got a delegation issue. He might need to hire a couple of people to do some of the work so that he's not double dipping as it relates to time and build that business up to where he can walk from the day job to this full-time job. That's the way I coach. I wish I knew what his income was or what he could pay himself. Yeah, I agree with that.

Nothing to add. Yeah, I just, well, just very quickly, I want you to talk about from your point of view, you know, I love this entrepreneurial spirit. We have 70% of Americans actually want to work for themselves, but only 6% do. There's a massive gap there. One of the reasons this is very, very hard,

but I don't want people stepping too soon into this dream entrepreneurial thing because when you got to put food on the table and you don't have enough money to put food on the table you can break your dream into a million pieces really quick because it just becomes this thing that you resent and you're exhausted you're scared you're you're starving, just wait. If it's dream worthy, it's weight worthy. I think so too. I think it depends on how you want to view this thing. If you have the comfort of kind of a nine to five that's meeting your needs and you can kind of do what this guy is doing, which is little by little, step by step, get closer to that dream, whether it's the income goals that

you stated. It's like, okay, we're almost there. Let's just keep stepping, stepping, stepping. As opposed to like, I know when Sam and I first started, we didn't have a main career that we were tethered to. It was kind of like, all right, everything is a scrap and your life kind of depends on it. You're not eating until you do this thing. So in many ways, I think if you do have that, it's buoyancy, right? It's keeping your head above water and giving you, it's kind of like renting before you buy a house. It's giving, it's buying you time to set this business up in the right way. And I think in many ways, that's a great security to have there. And there's no shame in taking your time to Ken's point and building it the right way.

Very good. I'm with you, Ken. Yep. I like it. I agree. All right, let's go to it. Savannah, Georgia, we've got Rebecca on the line. What's going on, Rebecca?

Hi. So I am curious, y'all's thoughts on buying a house in the town where our daughter is hoping to go to college for her to live in with potential roommates in terms of versus living on campus and how that may help us financially to get her through college. Do you live in the town where your daughter lives? Do you live in the same college town? So this may seem a little premature, but my husband and I are, we don't make any financial

decisions quickly. And so she's actually about to be a senior in high school. And so there's a lot of variable of, you know, if she gets into school, but she wants to go to the University of Georgia in Athens. So it's about three and a half hours away. And then we also have four younger children that several of them say they want to go there. You know, I understand that may not happen, but we're kind of thinking long term down the road. If we have several children who go to college in the same town, does it make sense to cycle them through something that's, you know, I mean, putting five kids through college is going to be expensive enough. I wouldn't do it.

No? No, I wouldn't do it. But I don't know your cash situation. I mean, it doesn't sound like you have the margin to where this is a no-brainer just by the last statement you made. It sounds like it's going to be expensive enough, and now you're going to buy a house and take – can you pay cash for a house in Athens that would be acceptable?

Not right now. Okay. How much would you be able to put down on a house in Athens? We would be planning for at least 20%. What's that going to put you at? I'm sorry? What would that put the down payment at, 20%? What is that going to be?

The house – I mean, who knows what the market will continue to be, but a house we were looking at, like 1,500 square feet, three or four bedroom, would be between $350,000 and $400,000. That's kind of what we were thinking. You know, nothing fancy, of course, just something for a college student and some roommate. And this is all to avoid the cost of a dorm? Well, I just, I mean, I think a lot of times they live in the dorm their first year, which is what we would want. But a lot of times they move off campus. So more like apartment living versus, we've had a few people who have sent their kids to college who said, man, on the back end, I wish we would have done this. And so we were just trying to think, would that be a smart decision

or not? I don't, I feel like it's a lot. I want to ask more and more questions about your financial situation. Are you guys out of debt? Tell me more about your financial snapshot. I'm pretty sure my answer is going to be no, but tell me, tell me more. We're in baby step seven. Okay, good. So we have zero debt and we are, you know, we currently have 529. We are saving for college. At this point, this first child of ours should receive um the georgia scholarship to pay for tuition fantastic so we you know we're and she has done some dual enrollment in high school so there will you know hopefully she'll only have three years of college instead of four um do you foresee being able to do you foresee being able to pay for all of your kids college that's the plan we do not want them to come out of school with any

student loan okay um and that is and everything is in place for that to take place yes okay um my thing is my thing here is if we our teaching here is if you're going to buy real estate to pay cash for it and so if you know i don't know how long it would take you to stack up the cash you needed to do this deal in cash. That's the only way I would do it. And also the other thing, the sidebar that bothers me is unless you guys are planning on going to Athens as well, like I just... Long distance landlord is not... Yeah. And there's no guarantee that all your kids are going to go to this college it just feels no it almost feels like it don't get me wrong i'm okay with the idea here but i'm not

okay with the idea now yes i'd like to see where first child goes what's the rest of the situation look like it's too soon to even be entertaining this you guys are such over planners though i understand how you got here but i would chill i'm not i'm not sold on the reason behind it either you know i think in many ways if you're saying hey we can avoid the cost of room and board and we'll make more on the equity there might be some math there that shakes out for you but i i don't like that it's based on the other kids say they want to go there too and this university has the ability to be in our life for the next, I don't know, however many years. I don't know how your kids' ages overlap.

But it feels like more of a permanent solution for something that's kind of temporary. And what happens if Kirby Smart moves on, God forbid, Georgia fans, and Georgia football gets mediocre? I'm just saying a lot of of variables and that's just one. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. Are you going to do it? No way.

All right. No, I'm not doing it. All right. The fat lady has sung. This is The Ramsey Show. Thank you.