The Ramsey Show - App - Renting vs. Buying a Home Before Getting Married (Hour 2)

Episode Date: February 18, 2022

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show. It's where we help you live your best life by being healthy, relationally successful, professionally, and peaceful financially. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, George Campbell. We are Ramsey Personalities, and we are your hosts this hour. 888-825-5225 is the phone number to jump in. It's toll-free, 888-825-5225. And, George, I know we hear from James, our erstwhile and just iconic producer, all the time. We have new people listening to the show all the time.

And if you're brand new, welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome. If you've got a question, you're going, I don't know, it's a live show and all these things that we're here for you. We're going to take good care of you. We're not here to use you as a prop to make a point. We're here to actually dive in and guide you. And so we're just so thankful. Welcome to all the new listeners that are coming in. George, I'm seeing new data every day. 61% of Americans live in paycheck to paycheck. Credit card is rising. The debt is rising. It is exploding.

And so we're here positioned to help folks. I think I just saw. We added a trillion in consumer debt just casually. We did. And 61% of Americans paycheck to paycheck. So we can help you with that. We want to Just casually. We did. And 61% of Americans, paycheck to paycheck. So we can help you with that. We want to help you. I'm here specifically to help you on the job side of things.

If you feel like you're in a toxic environment or you've got some choices to make, and we can weigh in together on that, we'll do that. Remember this, you can't separate your professional life and your personal life. They're just inextricably tied together. Your finances, same thing. And so if we can help you make a move right now to make more money, to get promoted, we want to do that. So everybody's welcome. Let's go. 888-825-5225. Let's go to Joshua, who is going to start us off this hour in Fort Worth, Texas. Joshua, how can we help? Hey, Ken. Hey, George. How you doing? We are having a blast.

What are you doing? Working hard, trying to get out of debt. There we go. How can we help? So my wife and I started about 11 months ago. We started with just under $100,000 in debt. We're down to about $35,000 now. Good for you. I'm trying to get a bigger shovel, a second job, to help speed up the process. Last year, I did six months of Instacart and only made about $6,000 extra to throw on the debt. This year, I want to find something a little better income-wise. Yeah.

But with my situation, I can only do remote work right now. I have a two-year-old son, and I'm his primary caregiver during the day. Okay. I work third shift. Okay. I work third shift. Okay. Now, can you tell me what the schedule is as to when you are not his primary caregiver? Is that several nights a week? What's the schedule that you have when you're not his primary caregiver? So I work third shift seven days a week because overtime is amazing at an aircraft plant.

And so I work midnight to 6.30 a.m. every day. How much sleep are you getting before you have to help him? Probably about four to five hours a day. And then you're watching him from what time to what time? 7 a.m. to 4 when my wife gets home. All right, that's all I needed. So we really are limited to any kind of remote work during that time where you're watching your son. Okay. How much research have you done about remote jobs? Some of the best jobs that you can get working from home? I've looked into data entry, telephone operations through DirecTV, stuff like that. I've used search engines like Indeed, Monster, USA Job,

and I keep applying for them, but I'm not hearing back from them. Okay, good. All right, so this is a different problem than I thought. The good news is you've identified these jobs that you can do and bring in the money that you want to bring in the issue is you're not getting interviews correct okay great all right so a couple of things you have to stand out from the pile you can you imagine how many people are submitting resumes for all those remote jobs? Absolutely.

It's a lot. And here's what we know about companies. We saw some data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and they said that over a million qualified candidates, George, didn't even get looked at in 2021 because these companies are using AI, artificial intelligence, and it's a software designed to funnel, if you will, field all of these resume submissions. And so what's happening is many times you're not even being seen. Your resume is not even being seen. It's almost as if you're this nameless, faceless person. That's probably what's happening to you if you're not getting any interview at all. Sometimes it is a simple strategy like making sure that the job you're applying for has

a job description, and do you have key words in that job description? So think of the most descriptive, specific words that the company is using in the job description. You need to make sure those words are in your resume. Do you understand what I'm saying? Yes, sir. Now, that's one simple technique to try. The second thing is I want you to download at KenColeman.com.

I want you to download my free resume guide, okay? It's absolutely free. It's a PDF. It's going to walk you through step-by-step how to make your resume stand out, and it gives you a free template as well, Okay? I've actually already done that. Great. So now that we're using that, the next step is what really gets us gigs are connections, people. So even though this is a remote job, your goal is to make some connections through your acquaintances, social media connections and friends, maybe friends and family, but you largely know all the same people they do, right?

So what we want to do is we want to get somebody submitting your resume for you directly to that person. So for instance, if you were to go on LinkedIn and you found, okay, I know this person through this person, we have a mutual connection. What you would do is instead of reaching out directly to the hiring manager, that person at that company, you reach out to your connection, not on LinkedIn, in real life, text, email, phone call, and you ask them, will they do a real-life connection for you, that person?

Do you understand what I'm saying? Yes. Now, listen, there's nothing mind-blowing I just gave you there. But the reality is that's the old-school human-to-human connection, and that's how you still win. Because if you just keep playing the automated resume submission game, it's essentially, George, like playing the lottery. Yeah. It's going to take a lot of time to look up on apply for all these positions, whether it's customer service rep online, virtual assisting, user experience testing, online tutoring. There's a lot of options out there, but it may not be as simple as I'm just going to apply and hope that I make it through.

And then, Joshua, one other thing that I want to recommend to you, you're in Fort Worth, Texas area. That's a big metropolitan area. Instead of just applying online and making those connections, you need to go directly into some of these companies and just kind of get a lay of the land you know what i mean and see who do you know and and play that personal connection game because if they're just looking for somebody they can rely on you tell them your story now they've got a personal connection to a real person i want those relationships those that that kind of game i explained to you i want you to try to make it to where you can see somebody in person and talk to them. Let them know who you are, even though it's remote work. I think that's going to get you the breakthrough. You're doing great though. That debt-free journey, it's going to be over

before you know it. You're crushing it. George and I are proud of you. Keep it going. This is The Ramsey Show. Did you know, statistically, when it comes to life insurance and protecting your family, that women are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured than men. This doesn't make any sense. Women make up half the workforce, contribute mightily to family incomes, and in many cases are the breadwinners and take care of their families 24 hours a day. This is one of the most overlooked areas when it comes to financial planning. Maybe it's a relic of the past, but a loss of income or the need to replace family care

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I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague, George Camel. We're here for you this hour. 888-825-5225. George, it's tax time. Oh, boy. I'm doing mine tomorrow, actually. Are you really? Yeah.

We're going out to lunch after to celebrate. Oh, that's a nice move. That's what we got to do. You get it done, you go celebrate. Can't wait. Oh, that's great. Well, for many of you, got to do. You get it done, you go celebrate. Can't wait. Oh, that's great. Well, for many of you, you've been filing your taxes with the same software for years, but you are sick and tired of add-on fees.

Is that you? Does that sound like you? That's me. It's you? It's all these folks, too. Sick of it. Sick of it. It's a disgusting feeling.

Yeah. And you've probably seen all these ads on TV playing like crazy, saying it's free to do your taxes with the big companies, but the reality is it's not free. By the time you realize you don't meet the free criteria, you've put in too much time to start over somewhere else, so you're paying up. We think you deserve better. That's why we're offering Ramsey Smart Tax, so you can file your taxes online without paying more than you'd expect. Ramsey Smart Tax includes every form you need with no hidden fees and no surprises. We even have a promo code right now, so you can file your federal taxes for free.

And if you want more priority support and extended audit protection, you can go with our premium version for just $20. So if you're ready to ditch the other guys and their surprising fees and save on your taxes, go to ramseysolutions.com slash smart tax. That's ramseysolutions.com slash smart tax. All right, Daniel is up next in Lexington, Kentucky. Daniel, how can we help? Hey, how's it going, guys?

We're having a blast. What's going on? My dad passed away in October. Didn't leave my mom much money, and he has bought some gold coins. They're not solid gold, but there's supposed to be some sort of value beyond the gold that's in them. And I just want to know if this is something we should hang on to

or something we should move. Well, first, Daniel, sorry for your loss. He's in a better place. I appreciate it. Yeah. George, what say you on these gold coins? Well, I'm getting rid of the gold coins. Are they sentimental? Are they like an heirloom?

No, it's probably one of these companies that trades a lot on.com. My dad wanted to put money in gold and sure the market was going to dip and gold's going to go up, that sort of thing. Yeah. Well, we never recommend investing in precious metals. So if I'm you, I'm going to cash out as much as I can on these and melt them down, see what it's worth, maybe to a local jeweler or something like that

and see what your options are in your area to do that. Or there are some online options if you want to look into those as well. But do you think there's a lot of money that's in these? Well, we can trade them back to the broker. So they're set up to buy, sell, and trade. Okay. Any idea on what you'll get for them through the broker? So the last time we spoke back in September before Dad passed away, Dad was confused because he saw the price of gold shoot up.

He saw a ticker. A lot of confusion in the last few months with him being around. He thinks that they're worth somewhere around $70,000. $70,000? Yeah. So you're saying if you traded them back to the broker, you could get upwards of $70,000? Yeah. So you're saying if you traded them back to the broker, you could get upwards of $70,000? I don't know.

I'm guessing. I don't know. I don't know what the market's done with gold since then. Yeah, and I know nothing about it. George, you know a little bit more. I've never invested in gold, but I do know that it has a poor rate of return, especially when you compare it to mutual funds and stocks and bonds. But you know what I'm wondering?

I'm wondering, George, should Daniel not, he shouldn't limit himself, I'm guessing, to just seeing what the broker will give. I'm going to get in a second opinion. It feels a little bit like maybe they would give less, and maybe you can sell these out in the open market. I would just look into it. Yeah, find out where your options are at least, and get a second or third opinion before you make a move here. But absolutely, I'm going to cash these out and apply it filter it through the baby steps uh is this going to be your money personally or does this go to the family

it's my mom's um i mean there's you know there's a mom you know where to pass away or when she does. But I guess just making sure for mom, if she needs the money for X, Y, and Z, you know, the house is older, the car is older, you know, there's things that are going to need to be done. And she's living off of Social Security and 30% of my dad's federal pension. Wow. Well, I'm going to help mom get rid of any debt she has, get the house paid off, and invest the rest so that she can have

something to live off of beyond Social Security to give her some dignity in her retirement years for sure. But, yeah, I'm getting rid of those gold coins as soon as you figure out what your options are. Yeah. Okay. All right. Appreciate the call. Thanks for the call. Yeah. I mean, that's a very interesting situation there. Yeah.

You've got to be careful because the easy route is go back to the broker. But if you can get more in the open market or whatever you would call it direct market that's that's a good move i love doing the research yes sir you do all right let's go to peter next in dallas texas peter how can we help hey fellas how we doing today having a blast man what's going on with you good i am calling to find out about purchasing versus renting fun stuff. We've been boaters. I grew up on the Mississippi River, owned several boats over the course of the years. Sold our last boat six, eight months ago. And just staring at now, do I want to cut loose of that much money again, you know for the next boat um or do i just want to go spend a

couple of hundred bucks at a time to rent for an afternoon uh and what am i sorry peter speak directly into your phone for us we can hear you all right there we go so what how do i calculate buying the boat in cash of course versus just going and renting one I want with numerous lakes around and that sort of thing? What's your income, Peter? There's a shortage of options. But that, like, guy thing, it's always... Peter, you're going in and out on this, buddy. Peter.

You're going in and out. Peter, I feel like you're on one of those fun vehicles going through a tunnel. Are you on a boat right now? That's the question, based on the phone quality. All right. I tell you what, I got the gist of the question. So do you. We don't know his debt situation. We don't know his income. I'll give you our parameters for anything with a motor in it. And I don't want it all to add up to more than 50% of your income. So if this boat is going to be 50 grand and you got the cars and your income 75,

no, we're not going to pay cash for this boat. Even if you can pay cash for it, I'm going to rent, have a good time. I'm the type who doesn't want to own all of this stuff and maintain it. And you're paying the dock fees, the slip fee, all that kind of stuff, putting the gas in it. I'd rather pay someone else to deal with all of that. And I pay 200 bucks a few times a year, 300 bucks, whatever it costs, and enjoy it. But that's just me. Well, I've heard from a lot of friends, and I think it's a well-known statement. I may butcher it a little bit, but it's kind of like one of your happiest days of your life is the day you – or two of the happiest days when you buy the boat, when you sell the boat, or something along those lines. Bottom line is you gave a great ratio by which we say, okay, if we have no debt and this

is the income to the toy ratio, that's pretty straightforward. And I agree with you. Now, if he's on the boat every single weekend and he's got a great income and he can afford this thing with cash easily and he wants to hassle with it. But it sounds like he said, I got rid of the boat six to eight months ago. So who's to say you're not going to get rid of this one six to eight months from now? Yeah. I like the idea of, look, you want to take the family out on the lake? Is it a pontoon weekend? Or are we going to do some jet skis? I like both.

Switch it up. We've done both. We've taken the kids out before where we'll go get a couple jet skis and take the kids out and go nuts. I'm a big fan. There are times where we've done the pontoon and you rent it. You know what's great about it? There's no stress.

Yeah. Other than trying to drive the thing. Yeah. I was almost going to buy a kayak one time and I went, I go kayaking twice a year, and it costs $25 to rent the kayak. What am I doing going to buy a kayak? I agree. And I like to find friends with boats.

That is the life hack. Now, this is the kind of stuff people come to the Ramsey Show for. Why buy it when you've got a friend who's got it? Yeah. Dave Ramsey's got a boat. He'll let me take it for a spin every now and then, right? No. Okay.

No. It's a good... He will drag you behind it. We've done some lake retreats before where Dave loves to abuse us on the skis. I almost... This is a fun fact. I almost wrecked Dave's jet ski. You did?

Last summer, yeah. Is he aware of this? You know, he was there, but I think we played it cool. Okay, I don't think he's aware of this. He's not listening to the show right now. He's fine. Yeah. This never happened, Dave.

Although, the next time we're on the boat with him, I will see if I can get Dave to let George drive, just because I want to watch Dave's reaction. He might say sure, at which point you would faint under the pressure. I will find a way to destroy that boat in five seconds. Well, then I don't want to be on it then. Sinking ship, Kevin. Good stuff. Alright, hey, don't go anywhere. More of your questions, your calls

coming right up. This is the Ramsey Show. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, joined by my colleague and Ramsey personality, George Camel. We're here for you this hour, taking your calls. 888-825-5225. And out in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage. Dan and Melissa, welcome. Hey. Thank you. Where are you guys in from?

Thomasville, North Carolina. Oh, is that the furniture capital, Thomasville? High Point. Oh, High Point is. Okay. We're right outside of High Point. Ah, very nice. Okay.

Well, welcome, welcome, welcome. Thank you. All right. So all the way to do your debt-free scream. That's correct. I love it. How much did you pay off? $345,000.

Whoa. In two years and six days. Whoa. Wow. Two years and six days. You couldn't have done it two even. Come on. We tried.

I love that. It took an extra week, right? You guys are amazing. That's right. All right. And what was your range of income? $150,000 to $250,000. Whoa.

Wow. What do you guys do for a living? I'm an operations manager. And I'm a cosmetologist. Nice. And I bumped up my income with side gigs. Good for you. I was going to ask that question. Melissa went to work. That's what jumped that up. So Melissa, you're responsible for that $100,000. No, not quite that much. Not quite. A lot of it. But a lot of good on you. That is fantastic. All right. So tell us what kind of debt was this? So we had a little bit of everything.

Obviously, had a home equity line. We had a beach condo that we sold. Wow. Also, a Lowe's credit card. And then, obviously, it's our mortgage ken what yes what the house yeah the house and everything we're looking at weirdos yeah we're pretty weird that's awesome we don't mind goodness oh my word uh so what's the reaction for you all once the house was paid off what was different was the grass different like Dave talks about? Was there something else?

The grass is definitely different. We were out of our house for a furniture market. We rent. Oh, okay. So we had to come home and take our shoes off. I'll bet you did. Then we took the picture and all that. It does feel different.

For me, Melissa loves writing stuff on paper, and I like the EveryDollar app. So I'm telling you, the first month, after not having a mortgage payment and you set the budget you're like it's zero there yeah that that's when it hit and then you get to go oh where does this money go now this is fun well isn't that that is fun it's a lot of fun oh my goodness okay so uh two years six days what was. What was the inspiration? What was the drag?

What was going on that made you go, all right, let's get serious about this and pay the house off? Yeah. The inspiration, I'll let Melissa start because she was inspired before me. So why don't you go? So our pastor did a series on generosity. And I was like, it just hit me. I was like, oh, my gosh, we need to be more generous and right now we can't um so that day we were having the last day to sign up for FPU um which is the

second time we've taken it at that point uh we actually saw Dave in 1999 live and then life hit and we just totally didn't do anything so 20 years of just ish right enormous yeah so we started fpu and i was just like we got to get this gone so i think the second class of fpu i was like i had a 2015 murano decked out it's so nice and i said we're selling the car it was so it was paid for already but actually on our heloc so we sold that and i I now drive a 2006 minivan that we pay cash for. Dumped the extra on the HELOC. That's amazing. Dan, how did you react when she said, after class two, I'm getting rid of the Murano?

Yeah, that was kind of hard for me. I think for me, the inspiration, I obviously wanted to set up financially for my family. My son, Gage, is off to the side here as well, and my daughter, Dakota, couldn't be here today. But I wanted to set them up financially. So that was my inspiration. But after going through FPU and seeing this and then seeing us get rid of things, it was motivating. And I think teaching the class as well kind of held us accountable. We'll start our fourth class in two weeks.

Wow. Thank you for doing that. You're welcome. It's good for us because it's a reminder, and it keeps us accountable to stay the course. And that's helped a lot. You guys are amazing. So what's this house worth? House, roughly about $400,000.

Oh, yeah, no big deal. Look at that. Oh, our viewing no big deal. Look at that. Oh, our viewing audience got a picture there. Beautiful. How about that? That grass, by the way, does look phenomenal. Great lawn care. I must tell you, I'm a guy who likes a good-looking lawn, and you, sir, well done.

I will applaud that. Thank you. So what's next for you guys? Baby Step 7, you're a young family. What are you dreaming of? Yeah, I mean, obviously we're transitioning to more empty nesting. The kids are 22 and 18. So for us, I really started and did FPU because we wanted to get to this point.

For me, it was an inspiration, George. One day I just wanted to be able to just give our cars away. Wow. So that was a motivator to get to a point. I mean, we've gone way back in car to get where we are. So I'm looking forward to Melissa's 06 car and my 09 just to give them away. So that's really what's next. Setting our kids up for a great future and then just being outrageously generous, just crazy generous. That's what we want to do. Wow. It's a beautiful vision and an

awesome why to have, especially as people of faith. It just drives me crazy that they're the broke ones. They should be leading the charge with generosity and these financial principles. And you guys decided, you know what? We want to be able to give way more than we are right now. And this debt is holding us back from having an impact on our community, on this country. So I love that. It's incredible. So what's the key? Yeah, I think at first for me, everybody says budget. And the one before said budget. That is really true.

I was kicking and screaming on the budget part because I just figured I could just out-earn everything, right? I'm just going to out-earn it. But you can't. You got to put it on paper. You got to make things visual. brought this this is hilarious my my wife loves to color kenna george coloring now she this is our mortgage little guy she stayed in the lines too i guess she did great coloring did she create that whole snake too well i think she printed it offline online and just made a print out of it like a paint by numbers yeah i love but we also did

one that was the debt-free journey with our consumer, and I did draw that one, but I couldn't find it. That's amazing. So that does keep you motivated. It's on the fridge. You see it. She was just very adamant. Every paycheck, she was carving out,

I need to color some more. I need to color some more. And that's what did it. I've got to tell you. You need the visual. You've got to have the budget, and you've got to have a big why. There you go. Some keys there. And that's what did it. You need the visual, you've got to have the budget, and you've got to have a big why. And that's what we heard. And I want to just say this to Melissa.

My parents got me a Bob Ross coloring book for Christmas as a joke because I used to love watching Bob Ross. Pulled it out the other night and gave it a try. I'm not very good. I really only liked coloring the squares. It's kind of interesting. I thought maybe this will be fun. I lost lost track your adult coloring career is not going to happen yeah i love it so

who are your big cheerleaders in this process yeah i think for for me obviously our family or our kids uh they both have been through fpu at some some points you know gage was like can we just stop acting like we're poor right uh but've been through it, so we've enjoyed that. Obviously, our parents, Melissa's parents were huge for us. I've got a Monday morning breakfast group that I meet with. Those guys have been phenomenal. We talk money. We talk a little bit of everything, and they're inspiring.

Friends that we met in our first FPU class in 19 when we were taking it again. That's so fun. Now, are you currently teaching a class or are you currently off? No, we're off. March 10th. We'll start our next one. How fun is that going to be to tell them your story and they know your baby step seven? Yeah.

And we've been where they were. That's what helps. Yeah, of course you did. Yes, it's so inspiring. So great. All right. So, Gage, is he going to join us in there for the screen? There he is. There he is.

Sharp-looking young man there. He's a part of this journey. Hey, two things we're going to give you real quick, and then we'll get to the screen. One, Total Money Makeover from Dave. It's a wildly selling book, and that's for you to give to somebody else. And then second, his latest book, number one bestseller, Baby Steps Millionaires, because that's where you guys are headed if you're not already there. That is so fantastic.

Alright, let's hear it. We've got Dan and Melissa and Gage from Thomasville, North Carolina, right there in the High Point, North Carolina area. They paid off $345,000 in two years in six days, making $150,000 to $250,000.

Way to go, Melissa. Let's hear your debt-free scream. Ready? Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! There it is. All right.

Very nice. I want to give a shout-out to Dakota as well. She's not here with them, but she was also a big part of this. What a great story. And you can just see, George, you can see legacy pouring out of them. They are going to make such an impact with this debt-free lifestyle. I see levity, too. Legacy and levity.

George, there you go. That's debt freedom, baby. You did it. He's a wordsmith, folks. Hey, great stuff. Don't move. More of the Ramsey Show coming right up. Welcome back to The Ramsey Show. I'm Ken Coleman, and I'm joined in studio by my co-host today, George Campbell.

And we are here for you. It is a free phone call if you want to jump in, 888-825-5225. Blinds.com's 100% satisfaction guarantee means even if you mismeasure or pick the wrong color, they will remake your blinds for free. You get free samples, free shipping, and with the new promos they run every month, you'll save even more. Make sure you use the promo code RAMSY to get the best deal. Today's question comes from Jordan in Texas.

I want to make a career change and go into financial advising. Currently, I'm in retail management and finishing my bachelor's degree in finance and economics. If I make this move, my income will go from $115,000 down to $60,000 due to the lack of certifications. My wife and I are in baby step six and could pay off our home in two years based on our current income of $225,000 per year. My dream job is to one day become a certified financial planner. Does it make sense to make the move now or wait two years until I finish school and pay off our home? All right, George, this is a career and a money question here. And I say absolutely it does not make sense to make this move now at all because you need to finish school and then there's the additional certifications you're

going to need that he's outlined here hey be patient yeah because the certified financial planner which is the dream job it is not as far away as you think it will be there when you do this the right way and the right way is they've been so disciplined at this point to get to baby step six and be working on that. Stay the course. You're making really good money. And you know what I want him to do to encourage him while he's holding, right, on making, I don't want you to make the move backward financially.

It's not necessary. What I want him to do is make some connections. Start hanging out with certified financial planners. Use the proximity principle that says in order to do what you want to do, fill in the blank here, certified financial planner. Got to be around people that are doing that. And in that two-year period where he's finishing school and they're paying off the house in Baby Step 6, he can be making connections so that when the degree is done, the debt is paid off, he can go get the certifications. And while he's doing that, he's still making all these connections.

He's got two years plus, plus, plus, whatever it takes to make the certifications a reality, to get some great connections to get the gig. Yeah. And what I love about that is he's got a paid-for house. Well, now he doesn't have the pressure of, even if the income dips a little bit as he steps into this new field, he's not going to feel it. And so it's not that far away, and I love that he's wanted to move into this field, and especially in the CFP world, it's never too late.

I've got so many friends that have shifted, moved into that career field. They're doing great now, but it takes a while to build a book of business and get on your feet. It's just like real estate. Your first year is not going to be amazing usually. So I love that he's stepping into this. Maybe one day he'll be one of our SmartVestor pros helping our fans. I feel like he might be.

So, hey, hold. Hold, hold, hold. No need to make that move now. But appreciate the question so very much. All right, let's go to Andrew now, who joins us on the line in Tampa, Florida. Andrew, how can we help? Hi. Thank you for having me on this show.

So I'll just get right into it. I am a computer engineering student. I graduate this May. So I am currently with my fiance of $130,000. So my question to you is, because right now we do not pay rent, there was a circumstance where we had to move with our family since there was a death in the family. So my question is, should we rent or should we take a mortgage? Because right now the Tampa area, some of the rent prices are a little inflated. Well, I'll make this real, real simple. We are not going to buy a house right now. And there's a lot of reasons.

Number one, even if you were debt-free, I would say still rent for a year at least. When are you guys getting married? We're getting married in May 12 May 12th. So about three, three, four months when I graduate. Wow. So you're graduating and immediately getting married. We've been together for five years. So it's been a while coming. Cool. Well, I'm excited for you guys with that combined income. What I want you to do is use all the power you can with that. Maybe you're even doing freelance, you know, computer development, software engineering type stuff to get rid of these student loans very fast. Is that all of the debt you guys will have combined to 60 grand in

student loans? She has a little bit in car debt. So it'd be about, I say 12K. So total about 72K. She currently makes about 65K and I make 29 an hour as an intern. Okay. So we're projecting it to be higher when I get hired by the company. Okay. Well, if I'm you guys, as soon as you're married, you're back from the honeymoon, we're combining bank accounts, we're going to set aside $1,000, and any other money we are throwing at the $72,000 in debt using the debt snowball.

So we're going to list them out from smallest to largest regardless at the $72,000 in debt using the debt snowball. So we're going to list them out from smallest to largest, regardless of the interest rate, which I know is hard because you're a math guy, computer whiz, but we're going to ignore the interest rate in order to see the progress. And with this income, I'm hoping you guys can do this in 12 to 18 months with your income. If you're doing some extra work as well, I want you to set yourself up as fast as you can with this marriage, completely debt-free. And then once you've got the debt paid off, you have a fully funded emergency fund. We're going to go back to that $1,000, fill it up with three to six months of expenses.

Then and only then do you even start thinking about the house, and we start saving up for the down payment in Baby Step 3B. Yes. I know that hurts to hear, doesn't it? Yeah, we've been wrestling with it uh it was just definitely the down payments that we were wrestling about well i want you to put at least 10 down 20 is ideal or more because you avoid pmi which again if you're a math guy that should make you angry that you're throwing away money towards lenders to protect them. So make that a goal. And listen, this is not going to happen in the next year. You're looking at a two, three, four year time horizon. But man, that patience is going to pay dividends

for the rest of your lives together instead of putting yourselves in a hole right now because rent is high in Tampa and the real estate market's crazy. It's crazy everywhere. So be patient. Let this time earn you some patience and let you save up for a few years. Your income is going to continually go up, and you're going to be in a really great spot a few years from now and have that financial peace. You know, Dave and I have talked when I've been on the show a day before, and somebody calls in rent or buy. We've talked about the psychology around renting. It's almost like an urban legend, if you want to call it that, where like, renting is throwing your money away.

It's a sin. Go get in a giant hole of debt because you're making it count for yourself. There's that school of thought. I'm just curious, for a millennial, I think he's a young man, you know, George, is there anything additional psychology there for younger people in this that you encounter, that you've dealt with? I think young people, especially the millennial generation, Gen Z coming up now, they're all feeling this pressure from society,

from their parents. And the parents are saying, when I was your age, I got a house for $8,000 in cash. What are you doing? You don't have a house yet. And so they feel this pressure like they should be further along by now. And I've worked too hard to rent. Only poor people rent. It's just a myth. It's a total lie. There's nothing wrong with renting. In fact, there's so many great things about renting that you don't have to deal with that you really do as a homeowner. There's HOA fees. There's maintenance. There's property taxes. The insurance is more expensive. You have to fix everything. You've got to replace the HVAC. You've got to replace the roof. And so let that time be special and let it be a time where you,

especially for newlyweds, especially not the time to be jumping into home ownership. Get to know each other. Learning how to live together and financial stress doesn't help that. You don't even know who's going to get the sock drawer. I mean, you've got some things to figure out as a married couple. It's really true. Before you jump into home ownership. So I just want to tell all the young folks out there, be patient.

Don't live your life in this microwave way of instant gratification. Get that delayed gratification. Live your life crockpot, low and slow, and you're going to have a delicious financial meal if you do that. Yeah, I really think that's true. And, you know, you kind of made a joke about the sock drawer, but, you know, it is hard to learn how to blend two types of experiences that relates to lifestyle. You know what I mean? So for instance, in your- Different backgrounds, different upbringings.

Yeah, so in the woman's house, well, the dad did this. My dad always did this. And in your house, you're going, well, my dad never did. And so there's enough of that natural kind of bumping into each other, learning how are we going to do life together. Yeah. And it is hard. It really is hard.

This reminds me. I want to gift Andrew a year subscription to Ramsey Plus. Oh, that's very nice. And have him and his fiance, I want them to go through Financial Peace University together, get access to EveryDollarPlus, our premium budgeting tool. So that is our wedding gift to you, Andrew. Hope you enjoy that. Go through it with your wife.

Get on the same page. You'll be in great shape. Yeah, and you can already tell they're very sharp. Sharp young man. Good things are ahead. Love the advice, George. Really good. Hey, George, thanks for hanging out with me.

Absolutely. On this hour, I want to thank our team in the control booth back there. They do so, so good for us each hour, making us look way better than we actually are and allowing a great experience for you, the listener. Thank you, folks. And to our audience, it is all about you. It is your life. It is your show. It is The Ramsey Show.

Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer and phone screener for The Ramsey Show. If you would like to do your debt-free scream live on the show, make sure you visit theramseyshow.com and register. We would love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story.