The Ramsey Show - App - Putting an Inheritance in the Wrong Place Is Financial Suicide! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: April 27, 2020

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Starting point is 00:00:00 🎵 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'm Dave Ramsey, your host. You jump in, we'll talk about your life and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225.
Starting point is 00:00:55 That's 888-825-5225. Alan, Alex is with us in Canada. Hey, Alex, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave, thanks for having me. Absolutely. How can I help? I've been following you for about the last year and a half, two years now. My roommate introduced me to you. I finished off step one, two, and three of the baby steps.
Starting point is 00:01:21 I'm just looking at what I should do next, as I'd like to do a career change from what I'm just looking at what I should do next as I'd like to do a career change from what I'm doing now into law enforcement or aviation. I don't have any kids. I don't own a house, but I'd like to own a house eventually. I'm just curious if you recommend anything.
Starting point is 00:01:42 Okay. So when you move to law enforcement career are you going to be making more or less i'd be making more okay and why are you waiting to do that why don't you do that now uh well i guess because this whole covid situation i'm well i mean i don't mean the second but i mean this summer uh well i'm planning on to i just kind of never acting making that change as from going to having a full-time job down to either part-time and going back to school right oh so you need to go to go into law enforcement you have to have a degree uh i'd go to bcit up here uh so it depends if i go through the rcmp they have their own thing
Starting point is 00:02:29 if i go through the city i go goes to school and take uh i believe it's a diploma okay but it's the equivalent of police academy or police training correct that's correct okay and how long does it take to go through that i haven't looked that far into it uh but i'm making the career change as that not for the money but as more so as i'd like to do something i'm enjoy doing okay but my point is let's get the details mapped, and let's see what hurdles have to be jumped to get there, right? Okay. And so if it takes two years to get this, that's one thing. If it takes 60 days to get it, it's another, right? Right.
Starting point is 00:03:16 And so let's find out exactly how long it's going to take for you to complete the requirements to become an officer in the area that you want to? Is it going to cost you anything, or are they going to pay for it? And are they going to pay you anything while you're in school? Some places do, some don't. You know, and just start kind of working down the system like that. Then you say, okay, gosh, I'm going to not be able to work for 60 days. How am I going to cover that? Well, you need to save up that 60 days. Did you say you're married i'm single okay so you'd have to have the money to be able to
Starting point is 00:03:50 survive while you're doing the school right or the ability to do part-time work or something okay okay fair enough yeah so let's just what you need to determine okay here's the thing you cannot hit a bullseye until you can see it. So we've got to be able to see exactly what is required for you to become an officer in the area that you want to be in. Okay? And that's the length of time in school, passing school. Are they hiring? How do you get a job?
Starting point is 00:04:22 Can you work during that time? How do you eat during that time? And those are the hurdles that you've got to lay out and clearly lay. When you get all that information in front of you, you're going to go, wow, this is going to be really tough. But I think if I did this, this, and this, I'll get there. And that might take me three years. It might take me three months. I don't know in your situation in canada what you're
Starting point is 00:04:45 facing but i i do know that dr stephen covey there's a famous book that was sold bazillions and bazillions of copies called the seven habits of highly effective people and uh one of the habits is to begin with the end in mind and that's not like I'm going to quit my job and then I'm going to go become a police officer. Well, you don't know how to do that yet. That's not beginning with the end in mind. That's impulsive and silly. But figuring out exactly what the steps are and laying those steps out and figuring out how you survive through all of those steps to get to your goal,
Starting point is 00:05:21 that's beginning with the end in mind. A clearly defined target is what you're looking for. And that's ready, aim, fire, not ready, fire, aim. And that's what you're doing. Good job, man. All right, Jake is in Michigan. Hey, Jake, how are you? I'm great, David.
Starting point is 00:05:39 It's an honor to speak with you. You too. What's up? Well, I just want to know if it is the right time financially to buy a house in the coming six months to a year or not. Economically, it is. I don't know about your finances. We tell folks to be debt-free, have an emergency fund, plus a down payment. Where are you in the baby steps, or do you know what I'm talking about when I say baby steps? Yeah, I know what you're talking about. So technically, I would be on baby
Starting point is 00:06:10 step two just because I have a car lease, and that's up in one year. But besides that, I have about $33,000 in savings, and probably by the 1st of Augustust i'll have anywhere between 45 and 50 what are you going to do with the car when the car fleeces up i'm going to give it back to the dealership and buy a three or a four thousand dollar car you're going to move down in car yes okay well you've got so much money saved. You know, what? Hmm. The early buyout on this fleece shouldn't be that much. There shouldn't be.
Starting point is 00:06:56 So how many, you have 12 payments left, right? Yes. And how much are the payments? They're $270 a month. Okay. So $3,600 or less, $3,400 buys you out today, and you could just turn it in and be done with it. Okay. And then go buy you a car. And I would imagine if you call them and ask for an early buyout on it, it'll even be cheaper than that. Okay.
Starting point is 00:07:26 So do that, move down in car, and then if I have around $30,000 in savings, I just want to know how much I need. You know, how much is that? I know you said 20%. I mean, I make around $60,000 a year. Yeah. So think about buying like a $120,000 to $150,000 house. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:07:43 Well, you're not going to have 20% down, but I'm not mad about that on your first home purchase. You just are going to end up with PMI, private mortgage insurance, which is expensive. It's about $75 a month per $100,000 borrowed. If you don't put 20% down, that's what you get. So I want you to have an emergency fund plus a down payment.
Starting point is 00:08:01 You know what? The more I'm sitting here thinking about it, that car, I think I would just set an extra $4,000 in your emergency fund and call that a day on the car. Drive the car on out and then drive it on out because you're not going to get much of a discount with only 12 payments left. You're probably going to be economically better off to get the use of the car instead of giving them money and then not have the use of the car.
Starting point is 00:08:30 And then set aside above the $ four thousand dollars what's your emergency fund of three to six months of expenses um you know maybe fifteen thousand bucks there or something like that and that's going to leave you roughly uh ten thousand dollars towards your down payment you may want to save up a little more before you do it then that's kind kind of where you're landing. Hey, good question. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Most of us are spending more time at home these days, leaving us with some extra time to fill. If you want to make good use of that time, then you need to be taking care of the important things on your to-do list, like getting term life insurance.
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Starting point is 00:09:45 Put down the TV remote and use this time to take control of your financial situation. Visit Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. For those of you that run a business or are part of an HR team, I want you to hear this loud and clear. It's no secret right now that the folks on your team, your employees, are stressed out about money. With 26 million Americans having filed for unemployment, a lot of them are desperate, and they're scared, and they need help, and they need hope, and they need you. As leaders of a business, you might be looking for some guidance on how to help your own employees during these uncertain times. We want to help.
Starting point is 00:10:48 Chris Hogan and I hosted another live stream, a message of hope. America moves forward. If you missed it, you're running a business, you're an HR, C-suite person, leadership team. Check it out, smartdollar.com slash hope. If you're really looking to help employees, we've decided to extend the free offers we announced a couple of weeks ago. If you're running a business and you've had to lay off or furlough people, and there's 26 million of them out there somewhere, you can get free access to SmartDollar for those laid-off people. Our financial wellness program is what SmartDollar is. It's how to get on a budget, how to get out of debt, all that kind of stuff, through the end of the year.
Starting point is 00:11:37 And you can help your current employees. For that, we're offering a SmartDollar free trial for your company. Both are free, and both are available right now, and both will not be available forever. Go to SmartDollar.com slash hope. We've already had several hundred thousand employees that have been laid off become eligible for the free SmartDollar wellness program because their company set it up for people that have been laid off. If you're running a company, let us know. We'll set it up. You contact the people. We'll contact them. We'll let them know we're here for them through the end of the year.
Starting point is 00:12:16 We'll let them stay in the program, and we'll walk with them through this really tough time they're going through. It's hard on everyone. on everyone smartdollar.com hope will is with us in washington hey will welcome to the dave ramsey show hi dave thank you for taking my call it's a real honor honor to speak with you sir how can i help so uh just to give you some context i'm currently serving in the military um we haven't been to work in about a month because of the virus. And I recently went scorched earth and as you like to say, beans and rice for about a month. I found other sources of income. And as of last week, I am debt free. Way to go. Wait a minute. The military stopped paying you? No. So we're still getting our checks every two weeks.
Starting point is 00:13:03 Oh, but I was able to find other sources of income to help pay off all my debt. Wow. And so you got your checks and you took extra jobs. That's right. Yes, sir. What did you do for your extra job? Delivered food. That was the main source of income during that time.
Starting point is 00:13:22 How much did you make? Total? I made probably about $1,500 in two weeks. Way to go, man. That's kicking butt. Good for you. Well done, sir. So you're debt-free.
Starting point is 00:13:36 That's a nice place to be. How old are you? 26. Cool. All right. That brings you on to baby step three, right? Absolutely. So my question is, I've got about a year and a half left in the military, and I'm currently investing about 15% of my income into a Roth TSP. It's basically the government
Starting point is 00:13:59 IRA. I'm familiar with it. And my question for you is, should I pause that investing to start my fully funded emergency fund? If you can't do your fully funded emergency fund in a couple of months, yes. We tell folks when you're doing baby steps one through three to temporarily stop investing until you get that. Now, if you can build up the emergency fund because you're hustling and scrappy and scratching and clawing the way you are and not stop it, I wouldn't stop it for two months or something, you know. But if it's going to take you six months to get that together, it's more important that you get your emergency fund in place before you continue on with the TSP. So I would temporarily sideline that puppy until I get my emergency fund in place, unless you can do the emergency fund very, very quickly.
Starting point is 00:14:51 Hey, man, congratulations. I'm proud of you. You're scrapping it. You're getting her done. And thank you for your service to the country. We appreciate you. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Sheila's in Missouri.
Starting point is 00:15:03 Hi, Sheila. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. Sheila's in Missouri. Hi, Sheila. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's up? Well, my brother passed away in February, and he left me some funds. And I don't know what to do with them.
Starting point is 00:15:17 We're getting ready to sell the house, and it's, like, overwhelming not knowing what to do to invest. I don't want to invest in something that's going to buy stocks and things and lose money down the line. We did that one time before. Okay. How much money did he leave you? $300,000. Okay. And you're selling your home, and how much will you get from it?
Starting point is 00:15:45 Well, we're selling his home. Oh. About $150,000. Okay. And you're selling your home, and how much will you get from it? Well, we're selling his home. Oh. About $150,000. So that will leave you $450,000 that you've inherited from your brother. Yes. Okay. In addition to that, what do you all have in NISTIG? We have about $150,000 in savings. Okay. Is that in a retirement account or a savings account
Starting point is 00:16:10 it's in a savings account earning two percent yeah not not much okay all right and uh do you have any debt uh we only owe for our truck that we have our home is paid for how much do you have any debt? We only owe for our truck that we have. Our home is paid for. How much do you owe on your truck? $30,000. Write a check today and pay it off. Okay. Now you have $120,000 in savings.
Starting point is 00:16:37 Right. Now you have no debt. And out of that $120,000, you need an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. I think you're a person that would like six months of expenses. What does it take to operate your home a month? Usually about maybe $300, $400. No, it doesn't. You have to eat.
Starting point is 00:17:04 You have to pay lights. You have to pay insurance on the $30,000 truck. You have to eat you have to pay lights you have to pay insurance on the thirty thousand dollar truck you have to pay property taxes oh gosh i don't know what kind of number then on that yeah i'm thinking several thousand dollars a month of some kind yeah so calculate what your calculate your monthly budget and then multiply that times six and that's how much out of that 120 that's left after paying off the truck i want you to set aside as an emergency fund i'm going to call that 30,000 for the fun of it okay i'm just going to make up a number all right which leaves us 90,000 there in that account plus the 450 coming from your brother did you say your home is paid off? Yes. How old are you guys?
Starting point is 00:17:54 Well, we are 69. Okay, cool. Most of that is about since my husband retired in 2005. Great. Well, you're in very, very good shape. But here's the thing. If you take $500,000, which is what we're talking about here, give or take, and you make 10% on it, that's $50,000 a year. If you make 1% on it, it's $5,000 a year. Okay. You're losing $45,000 a year that makes it that makes sense putting this putting this in a savings account is financial suicide now okay then what do i do dave well i invest only in things i understand and i get peace about because I get knowledge about.
Starting point is 00:18:48 You did an investment in stocks of some kind a while back, and you didn't understand it, and you got burned on it, right? Right. We lost it all, yes. You lost it all, 100% of it? Yes. Wow, you did get in a bad deal. That's very unusual.
Starting point is 00:19:05 That kind of made me leery about it. Well, yeah, that made me leery, too. Smart people be leery after that, kiddo. All right, here's what I want you to do. I want you to learn about the investment before you do it. Don't do it because I said do it or somebody else said do it. Don't do it because an investor said, investment professional said do it. Do it because you understand it. Click smartinvestor at DaveRamsey.com.
Starting point is 00:19:28 Smartinvestor. And find a smart investor pro in your area and let them begin to teach you. Only when you understand and have a comfort level do you invest. And then I would put this money in mutual funds. folks i love telling you about well-made well-thought-out products today i'm talking about grip six belts i don't know about you but i'm not a fan of traditional belts they never fit right and they're uncomfortable grip six belts are unique owner bj designed a truly modern minimalist belt made of high quality materials with no holes no flap and no bulk and the buckles come in really cool designs and are interchangeable i personally own these belts in different styles and talk about affordability
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Starting point is 00:21:21 When I went broke years ago, I said never again. I'm going to learn how this stupid money thing works, and I'm going to get control. Well, here at Ramsey Solutions, in the middle of so many folks being isolated at home, we've been working on a way that we can help you. And we want you to know you're going to make it. This too shall pass. And for the very first time ever, about three weeks ago, because of the mess that the nation is in,
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Starting point is 00:22:34 You do have choices. The choices you make determine where you will be tomorrow. And you do have choices. You've got a right and a possibility of doing this. It's very real. You're going to get through these times, but the better knowledge set you have with money, the faster you're going to get through the money problems.
Starting point is 00:22:58 And on to wealth. We teach people to live like no one else so later they can live and give like no one else. If you want to check out the 14-day trial and a lot of the other hugely discounted things we have all for this particular time in our nation, just go to DaveRamsey.com slash hope. DaveRamsey.com slash hope. Ryan is with us in Texas. Hey, Ryan, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave, how are you doing? Thanks for taking my call. Sure, man. What's up? Well, I have a couple of restricted stock units that are investing
Starting point is 00:23:40 in the middle of May, and I just was curious what to do with them, especially, I know you said, if you're investing to keep everything there and not withdraw, but since I'm getting the shares, I would usually sell them, but because the market's really down. When I'm saying don't take anything out, I'm talking about your mutual funds. I'm talking about stock investments that you wish you didn't own. Or that, I mean, they're nice, they're free, it's a good thing. But if it's a restricted stock unit, it's probably an initial public offering of some
Starting point is 00:24:13 kind, a very young company and somewhat volatile. Am I wrong? This is more of an incentive, a long-term incentive. Oh, okay. Having due. Okay. All right. So the only restriction was just to get
Starting point is 00:24:26 you to vesting, not because they were worried about the stock hitting the market. Okay. All right. So what's this worth when you cash it out? The initial distribution, I think, right now is $12,000. Okay. And where are you on your baby steps? We're on baby step six. Okay. So it's extra money then. Yeah. And we have a baby due in May as well. So not that that changes a lot.
Starting point is 00:24:59 Okay. Is the stock down? Is it volatile? Describe its patterns. Since the year that I was, it's been a year since I received the shares, and it's gone down $20. So it was $25-ish, and now it's about $6. Whoa! Yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:24 Well, the market has not gone down that much, so the company's about $6. Whoa! Yeah. Well, the market has not gone down that much, so the company's not doing well. Yeah, it's oil and gas in Texas. Oh! Okay. Well, here's the thing. You're not desperate for the money if it if you got zero it doesn't change your life correct okay it's worth twelve thousand dollars a year ago yeah okay now uh so what we would have to do
Starting point is 00:26:10 is we'd have to think through uh is there a reason to sit on it for 90 or 120 or six months it's not something i want to sit on the rest of my life but this could be one of the worst possible times in your industry in the last couple of decades. Okay? Some of that was brought on by the fact that no one drove cars for the last 30 days to mount anything. So demand for gasoline and oil consumption has gone dramatically.
Starting point is 00:26:44 It's off 90% or something. And for that reason, we've got tankers sitting off the coast all around the U.S. storing oil sitting there. And the oil companies are paying them to store the oil just sitting in a tanker. They don't even want to offload it. They don't have a place to put it because their storage units are completely full. That's how oil went to negative per barrel. You following me?
Starting point is 00:27:07 You probably know all this, right? Yep. I've been watching it. Okay. So I think it's not a far stretch to say once the economy starts moving again, oil starts being consumed, your company is going to be worth more if it doesn't bankrupt in the meantime. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:28 And, in other words, this time, six months from today, it wouldn't be a far stretch for this to be worth double what it's worth today. Yeah. Because it's just in a very unusual economic situation right now, and you're in a very sensitive industry in this particular time. So all that to say, A, you don't need the money. If it goes to zero, we didn't lose anything. B, I wouldn't buy it if I was just walking up to buy stocks right now, but you own it.
Starting point is 00:27:59 I'm probably going to ride this until the fall, and then whatever it does by whatever, give yourself a date, whatever it does by October 1, I'm going to sell it until the fall and then whatever it does by whatever give yourself a date whatever it does by october 1 i'm going to sell it then regardless i'm not gonna i'm not gonna keep kick i'm not gonna keep kicking the can down the road but i'm gonna give this thing a little bit of time to heal you could double your money between now and october would you agree with that yeah and that's kind of what i was planning on doing. But I was 50-50, and I wanted somebody else to weigh in on it just because I haven't had the situation before. And, you know, with the economy the way it is, I didn't want to make the wrong choice either. What I don't want to do is I don't want to get in the habit of analyzing this and kicking the can down the road and going,
Starting point is 00:28:41 well, I'm going to try six more months, and I'm going to try another year. And then all of a sudden you're investing in oil stocks long term, which is not what I would tell you to do, even though you work there. But I do think you're in an industry that is artificially low right now due to an economic anomaly that we've never seen before. It's not a recession. It's not a depression. It's a suppression.
Starting point is 00:29:05 The government said everybody stay home and quit spending money. Boom. Everybody stay at home and quit spending money. And it destroyed sections of the economy temporarily. And oil is one of them. And so if it was me, I would hold it until about October 1, and regardless, I'd dump it. And congratulations on the new baby on the way.
Starting point is 00:29:26 Good question. Now, I don't time markets. I don't jump in and jump out, depending on what I think the economy is going to do. But there's some rare situations where you're in an unusual situation like this, where you just use some common sense and some basic economic understanding to make a call. I don't buy stocks based on I think they're low, you know, they're artificially low. I continually invest in mutual funds. I put the exact same amount in this month that I put in last month that I put in the
Starting point is 00:29:55 month before that I put in the month before. I'm very, very steady and regular on my investing. I don't jump in or out based on what's in the headlines of the news. That will cause you to lose money. Don't do that. And you don't cash your 401ks out right now because you're scared. Some of you cashed them out at $19,000. It's already back up to $24,000.
Starting point is 00:30:18 Well, wasn't that silly? No, you ride these things out, and in his case, we're going to ride even an individual stock out a little while longer. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. Business leaders make your life easier with FreshBooks. Whether you're starting a business or you've been at it a long time, FreshBooks is one of the smartest decisions you'll make this year. FreshBooks is an accounting software designed for people like you that lets you do the things like automate your invoicing
Starting point is 00:30:56 and your online payments so you get more time to work on your business. Try FreshBooks for 30 days free at freshbooks.com slash Dave Ramsey. Our scripture of the day, Isaiah 41.10, Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Theodore Roosevelt said, It's only through labor and painful effort by grim energy and resolute courage that we move on to better things. Cody is with us in Oklahoma. Hi, Cody. Welcome to
Starting point is 00:31:57 the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. How's it going? Better than I deserve. What's up in your world? About the same. Blessed beyond belief. My question, I actually got laid off at the beginning of everything going on with the COVID and everybody kind of sheltering in place, which actually turned out to be a blessing because I immediately started looking around and found another job. It's a significant pay increase, but my question is involved with the benefits. They have amazing benefits at this place. They do a 175% match up to 6% of your income on 401k and 175% match on an HSA. My wife and I have just recently started your plan.
Starting point is 00:32:40 We're still on baby step two, and I know you're not supposed to invest until you're completed with baby step three correct and my question was should that is that across the board or should i do the bare minimum that they're going to match just to take advantage of this free money or you know benefit earned, it's so tempting. That's such a sweet match. That's so tempting. Here's what I have found, even though it's tempting. It's for a short period of time that you're going to be missing out on the match because you're not doing investing until you get out of debt.
Starting point is 00:33:22 And the benefit is, the pain is for a short time, the benefit is the pain is for short time the benefit is what you focus on is what you win at that's how you got married that's how you got yes sir if you focused on her and if you hadn't focused on her you wouldn't have gotten married that's correct you know what you what you and so how much debt have you got, not counting your home? Between the two of us, we built it up the other day. I think it was $111,000 and some change. And what is your household income, including the new job and your wife? Between the two of us, I believe we're going to be making about $90,000 a year. Okay.
Starting point is 00:34:01 So how quick do you think you're paying off 111? Well, when we use the snowball calculator and, um, the debt calculator, it said it was going to take us about four years, but that was when she did it with my old salary. Um, and that was not including any kind of bonuses. We both get bonuses and profit sharing at our jobs. Okay formula that i use the formula that i use how much out of 90 can i live on if i'm on beans and rice right and throw the rest of it at this so round numbers if you lived on 40 and through 50 at the debt you'd be debt free in about two years yes sir and i think that's uh with our budget i think right now we're at about 45 yeah that's i mean that's and that's not no bonuses and that's you our budget, I think right now we're at about 45. Yeah, and that's no bonuses, and that's, you know,
Starting point is 00:34:48 I don't know whether you can do that or not. I just use big numbers like that to look at this. So we can go back to your original question and say how far are we out of this thing. We're probably out of it between two and three years. It's not four. And we're missing out on the match for that period of time and to the extent that you violate that you're a mathematically going to be putting more into investments less
Starting point is 00:35:12 on debt so you're going to be in debt longer but also you've lost focus a little bit and that's the biggest problem with money that i've run into all these 30 years of doing this is people trying to do six things at once they don't get any of them done. Yes, sir. And that's why we tell people, even though as a math nerd, it pains me greatly to walk from a match like that. The only solace I have in telling you to do it is that what you focus on is what you win. That's how you win.
Starting point is 00:35:42 And it's going to be for a short period of time. I'm going to guess and say you're probably out of debt. If you follow through with great intensity, great focus, and great sacrifice, you're probably out of debt in about two years. That's my guess, because I think you're going to scrape together extra money. You're probably going to sell some of that crap that you owe money on so that you're clear. You may have a big car debt in that 111 i don't know all that kind of stuff and you're going to start really analyzing that and going i want out of this what have i got to do to get out of this and get out of it faster and then you'll knock that emergency fund out in no time and you're going to start your start your match at that point. But what a sweet benefits package. What a wonderful benefits package.
Starting point is 00:36:27 And that's what I would do, even though the math nerd in me always sticks out his lip and pouts when I do this. Jerry is with me in California. Hi, Jerry. Welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave. How you doing? Better than I deserve.
Starting point is 00:36:44 What's up? Hey, so sorry. The name's Jared. I'm sorry, Jared. I goofed up. My fault. No problem. I always get that. But a question for you, see what you do if you're in my shoes. I got about $370,000 in the bank, zero debt. I own a rental property. I owe about $165,000 on that. I'm trying to figure out if I should pay off that rental property or what I should do. So the reason I ask is I'm renting right now. I pay BMR. My father-in-law owns the property. I'm looking to buy a house here for my wife and I. And so trying to decide. So you're a renter, but you have a rental property. Correct.
Starting point is 00:37:29 Okay. And how much equity is in the rental property if you sold it? I've got about $135,000. Okay. And you owe $160,000, but you've got $370,000 in the bank. I do. Wow, where did that come from? Savings, diligently. My goodness gracious. Diligently saving. bank i do well where'd that come from savings diligently my goodness very diligently saving so if you were what part of california are you in i'm in silicon valley san jose
Starting point is 00:37:53 baby all right yes sir 10 down payment yeah exactly exactly oh my gosh. That's why I have $370 in the bank. We've been saving to buy locally. It's a beast. Now we're looking outside the area. So you're making some bank then, too. What do you make? So last year I made $250. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:16 Yeah, my wife made about $140 last year. Okay. But she's no longer going to be working. We have two kids. We have another kid going to be born here. You're going to stay in the area a while, I assume? No. So we're looking at two options.
Starting point is 00:38:30 Either way, same price of the house. I'm looking to buy a house for us for about $650. That should put me in the 25% take-home range 15-year, which you recommend. And we're looking at two areas, believe it or not. We're looking outside of Sacramento, and then we're also looking in Tennessee. I could probably keep my job at either location we go to. Well, I mean, even Sacramento is way different than where you are, and Tennessee is way different yet again, price on houses-wise.
Starting point is 00:39:00 So, okay, I'm selling the rental. I'm going to add that to the pile of cash, and then I'm going to buy the house wherever you want to live. Okay. And put as much down as you can, and put it on as short a term as you can, 15-year fixed payments, no more than a fourth of your take-home pay. But, yeah.
Starting point is 00:39:24 So Sacramento is what, an hour and a half commute? So the area we were looking at is about two hours. I wouldn't commute. I could pretty much work from home. I have meetings that I'd have to attend to every now and then, so I could drive in. So the benefit of going to Sacramento, I'd be closer to work. I could drive into, you know, the city or wherever I'm at for work when need be. And if we did Tennessee, I'd probably be able to keep my job, I would say, for maybe, you know, three, four, five years.
Starting point is 00:39:53 And then I'd probably start looking for something over there. Okay. All right. Well, it's obviously a completely different real estate market. It's two different planets. And so, you know, I'm okay with either plan then. You know, it just depends on where you want to live then, you know, after that. But I'm selling the rental, and I'm going to throw that $130 on top of the $370, which puts us at $500 roughly at your house deal here,
Starting point is 00:40:24 regardless of whether it's Sacramento or Tennessee. And that's what I would do. Hey, man, good question. You're making some good money. Congratulations. I'm proud of you. Well done. Well done.
Starting point is 00:40:35 That puts us out of the Dave Ramsey Show and the books. Our thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. In the middle of these uncertain times, Ramsey Solutions wants to give you some hope.
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