The Ramsey Show - App - Retirement: When Should I Start Saving for It? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: July 27, 2021

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Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is gone, cash is king, and a paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Ken Coleman, Ramsey personality, number one best-selling author of The Proximity Principle is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. Sarah is going to start us off this hour in Saratoga Springs, New York. Hi, Sarah. How are you? Hi, Dave. Hi, Ken. How are you? Great.

How can we help? Great. My husband and I are on Baby Step 3B, and we just closed on a house, and we were wondering how soon after we move into the house should we restart the retirement again? Well, what do you think? I think about three to four months so we can get used to the new budget in the house, but my husband feels anxious that we haven't been putting it into retirement, and he wants to start it as soon as possible. Why would you wait?

Just because the house payment and the house expenses are a little bit different than what it is in our apartment, so I just wanted to get a better handle on what it's actually going to be per month. Well, you ought to know. They gave you the payment amount at the closing. True. What is it you're going to discover? I guess of, like, repairs and stuff like that. You just bought the house.

Does it need repairs? Just, like, a new furnace. It's, like, a 25-year-old furnace, so they suggested replacing it soon, so we were going to do that within the first couple months. Okay. Get some bids on a furnace. Okay. So here'sids on a furnace. Okay. So here's the thing, okay?

You should not have all of these unknowns. And then once you don't have the unknowns, then that tells you when you can start the retirement or should start the retirement. But I'm with your husband. I've got an urgency to get going on it. But I don't want to start your retirement and then finance a furnace. No, we wouldn't do that. I know, but the balance is is we got to figure out how we're going to pay for this furnace right and so go ahead and get you know we know what the house payment is and um shouldn't be hard to pull up the electric bill you can get copies of that from the former owner or even ask

the utility company they'll give you the history on that so you have to lay your budget out within a few dollars and then you say then you get three bids on a furnace and you go okay we're going to spend x number of dollars on a furnace and so that's going to mean we start the retirement we start retirement back after the furnace is saved and that's going to be here you ought to be able to lay all of this out but but the idea we're going to kick the can down the road for vague unknowns that you should search out the answer to is not a good plan. Okay. Does that make sense to you? Total sense.

Yeah, so go ahead and just dial it in. And if you get dialed in, you're okay, Ken. Yeah, and, you know, one other thing I'd say there is who's they? And let's get two or three they's to look at that furnace and say, do we need to replace it now or do we think it's got six months to a year life? Go ahead and save up for it. Get the quote of what it's going to cost. Get three or four quotes and save it up.

But I've been scared before, Dave. I remember when I was a new homeowner, and, oh, you need to do this. You need to do that. Oh, you need to do this. Well, do we really? Yeah. That's all. You're still going to save up for it and prepare for it.

Stinking thing, my last five years. It could be the efficiency on it, too, would be worth going ahead and doing it now. But you also want to catch it on seasonality. That's true, too. Meaning you don't want to do a replacement when there's a line of people out the door doing replacements because the season changed, right? That's correct. You want to do it in the off-season where they're catching them when they're not working and they give you a good deal. Yeah.

And so the timing on it would be a good idea, too. But you're right. You can go ahead and save up and be ready for executing on a certain timing or just be ready when the thing lays down to fix it at that point. Anthony's with us. Anthony is in Tampa, Florida. Hi, Anthony. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Dave.

Such an honor to chat with you. How are you doing? You too. How can we help? Just wondering on which baby step can we start updating kitchen updating pool uh that kind of thing well we teach folks to not do anything until they're through baby step three out of debt and have your emergency fund in place because updating the kitchen is not an emergency so you need your emergency fund in place and be out of debt first and now then at the point that you're at baby steps four five and six

you move from intense meaning not doing anything except those things to intentional and intentional means that there's some other stuff in our life we're going to do while we're doing retirement kids college and paying extra on the house but we're also going on vacation buy a new couch update the kitchen do the pool whatever those things get woven into the budget at that point of course paying cash for them and but um there's a different rhythm there ken and those uh three and four five six yeah i like the distinction between intense and then intentional you know okay look we just talked about this previous caller we've got some real expenses. What would we consider higher priority?

What's lower priority? What's just we'd really like to do it, but it's really not going to affect our life, negative or positive, one way or the other. And I think that's the intentionality that you're speaking to. And I've got to tell you, that's really helped us from time to time go, well, I want this, but we don't need this. Good distinction.

The Ken Coleman Show is broadcast on 75 plus time to time go well i want this but we don't need this good distinction the ken coleman show is broadcast on 75 plus radio stations sirius xm and as a podcast every day he is helping folks with their careers with their jobs with their promotions with uh finding their dream with finding work that matters and plugging in every day does Recruiters spend an average of 7.4 seconds on an initial resume screening. Gosh, that's probably double what I spend. And it's never been more difficult for your resume to stand out among the sea of participants. And that's why we, Ken, created a six easy-to-use resume templates to get you noticed. They're a whole $9.99, six of them.

And these are instructions for building your resume, the 10 do's and don'ts of job applications. Text RESUME to 33789. You can get dialed in on that RESUME to 33789. And, of course, you can follow Ken Coleman's show on Facebook, Ken Coleman on Instagram, the Ken Coleman Show on YouTube. He's everywhere helping people with their careers, including here today to help you. If you want to talk careers, jump in at 888-825-5225.

888-825-5225. Kelsey says, in my office there's a job opening that would be considered a promotion. What can I do to show my boss I'm qualified? Yeah, I love this. I sit down with them after we've looked at the actual job description and make sure you are qualified. You just don't want to be qualified. In this particular question, it's all right. We want to sit down.

If you've got the qualifications and go, hey, I'm really interested in this opportunity. Here's why. Don't just lead with qualifications. Lead with enthusiasm. See, this is what a leader wants to know. They want to know not just that you're qualified, but you're raising your hand, not just for a promotion for you, but because you are really, really deeply excited about this opportunity to grow yourself by adding more value to the company.

They're going to go for enthusiasm, some passion, more than just qualification. Lay it out there. I'm really interested. I want the shot. What can I do to get the shot? Put me in, coach. That's it. But hunger, right?

Not with an attitude of, hey, give me the thing. I'm the guy that you're supposed to put in the game. No. I want the shot, coach. Put me in. Put me in, coach. I'll prove it. That's it. I'll prove it.

Hunger. Humility. I got this. I got it. This is the important than ever. While some circumstances can't be controlled, there are items within your budget you can take charge of, such as your health care costs. For nearly 40 years, Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, has provided a budget-friendly means of sharing for medical bills when our members need it. Learn more by visiting chministries.org budget. That's chministries.org. host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money.

On the stage, the debt-free stage in the lobby of Ramsey Solutions is Benjamin and Josefa. Hi, guys. How are you? Thank God we're good. How are you? Better than I deserve, my friend. Where do you live? We're from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Oh, cool. Welcome to Nashville. And all the way here to do a debt-free scream. How much have you paid off? $73,046. Very good. And how long did this take you? 28 months.

All right. And your range of income during that time? $136,000 to $143,000. Very good. What do you do for a living? I work in sales. What do you sell? We help pharmaceutical companies with a quality system. Okay, cool. I'm a stay-at-home mom.

Wonderful. Very good. What kind of debt was your $73,000? Student loans. Yay! Got rid of Sally Mae! Oh yeah, I was so happy to say goodbye to that. Toss her out in the street where she belongs. I love it. So how long have you guys been married? Almost six years.

Okay. So two years ago and something changed. What happened? Well, we have been on a financial journey since the beginning of our marriage. And actually, it's funny because right before I got married with Tabinyam and my friend was telling me about this snowball thing. I'm like, oh, okay, I guess that is bad. So we were actually living in Brooklyn, New York, and we moved to Philadelphia with the intention of buying a home. So we decided for one year we'll rent. And then we started our home search a year later. And none of the homes looked really great. And then one day, Benyamin comes home.

And I'll let him finish the story. So I came home because I had a long conversation with a couple of friends of mine. And realized that we're about to undertake getting a house. And we still have over $70,000 worth in debt left. And that doesn't really make sense if you have to replace a roof that's going to cost you $10,000 and we're never going to set up a financially successful life for our families. So we had a pretty difficult conversation for the next couple of days. Most of your books started religiously listening to the podcast and then decided, okay, we're going to do this.

And we set out on a trek from there to knock up the rest of the debt. How did you run into our stuff? I have a couple of friends in Philadelphia that are strong adherents. And so it was a lengthy conversation. It was hard to get not be on the house-buying train like everybody else and say we were in the same boat as everybody else. And it kind of came to the realization that this doesn't make sense right now. Yeah.

Very cool. Very cool. Well, congratulations, you guys. I'm proud of you. Very well done. Who were your biggest cheerleaders cheering you on along the way? Our family. They were definitely supportive.

And it was really good to have friends kind of in the same boat as us, like living the Dave Ramsey lifestyle and having that. Fun, so you got a bunch of people doing it. Oh yeah. Very cool. So I gotta ask, you buy the books, you start listening daily to the show and so you're really

starting to soak all this in. What were some of the first big steps, maybe a big momentum starter for you to get started on the debt snowball and really get some traction? What'd you guys do? We had to make the first difficult choice to take all the money that we had put to the house and throw it into that. Oh, that's hard. And so that was hard. I mean, honestly, a process of becoming comfortable with your lot, we had to decide for the next three years or however long it's going to take, we're going to live in an apartment instead of where everybody else is going to buy houses. We're going to be comfortable and make do with what we have and be happy with it.

And so, I mean, the first biggest step was just the mental state of being willing to do that and kind of getting on the same page. I mean, once you're on the same page, it's a lot easier. And so that was really the first part of the process. I have to admit, it took me a little bit to get onto that page, but once I did, I was definitely happy. You were on the house train on down the track. It was really disappointing to say no to the look. That's hard to do. The budget part was really important, but as you can tell from when Benjamin mentioned his range of income, not much changed.

It was more of a mindset that had to change. You know, we were dealing with a similar budget. We just had to differentiate between the things that we needed and the things that we wanted to have and we'd like to have and the impulse buys that we wanted to do. So that was definitely a difficult mindset change. Yeah, that's a big deal. That's a big deal. So how's it feel now that you're free? It's actually, I listen to the show a lot of times.

The typical answers are, and it's true for us too, it's liberating, it's freeing, it's like a weight off your shoulders. A friend of mine made an interesting comment to me who started the Ramsey journey for himself, which is that we felt the same way. I thought that freedom really is the ability to buy what I want, but it's not really because freedom is actually the ability

to make unencumbered choices. And freedom really lives kind of in that mindset where you have a structure, you have the baby steps, you have a plan, and you find freedom within that. When you don't have the plan, when you don't have the structure, you actually end up buying a bunch of stuff you don't need. You end up spending more than you actually make. And so it's actually the true freedom is within that structure. And once you get to the end of it, then you really have the ability to make unencumbered choices. Okay.

So that's true freedom. Amen. That's good. Yeah. That's like aed choices. Okay. So that's, you know, true freedom. Amen. That's good. Yeah. I mean, that's a big word. It's like I'm going to teach the next segment. You should. Unencumbered.

That's a great, great visual, too, to that word. That's a 50-cent word, but the reality is there's no strings. There's nothing holding you back. Yeah. It's a beautiful, beautiful illustration. Powerful. Now, you brought friends with you. Who are the friends just off camera over here?

Well, we got our family. Oh, it's your family. We got three kids and also my father and my brother and his family also. Very good. Quite a family affair then. Yes. You brought the cheering gallery. Very good.

Good. Well, we've got a copy of the Legacy Journey for you and a copy of the Total Money Makeover. You can pass those along. Enjoy them yourself. And, oh, here they come. I love it. What are the baby's names and ages? So this is Menachem Mendel.

He's eight months. This is Hendo Gittel. She's two and a half. And this is Eliezer Leib. He's five. Fabulous. They look fun. Oh, they are.

Very cool. Very cool. I love it. Well, congratulations, you guys. Thank you. Very, very well done. Very cool. I love it. Well, congratulations, you guys. Thank you. Very, very well done. All right, Benjamin and Josefa, $73,000 paid off in 28 months, making $136,000 to $143,000. They are now unencumbered.

They are. They are debt-free. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. Thank God we a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. Thank God we're debt-free. Yeah. Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo.

I love it. That's fun. Look at those babies. They're cute. Very well done. That's a great family and a great story. Completely free. You know, there's a lot said in that interview with them, this idea that I can just – it was a decision.

And once we made the decision, all the drama goes away. Isn't it funny? Where all the drama comes from is not staying with the decision. Yes. You know, Proverbs says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. And we add drama to our lives when we don't stick with, okay, we're going to do this, we're going to stick with it. Then all the other stuff's off the table, and it just, all of the emotion and the psychology and the drama and stuff starts to melt away, doesn't it? It really does.

In fact, the rest of that scripture talks about the analogy of driven like the waves and the wind of the sea, just this back and forth, back and forth, and committing to the decision and then managing the decision. Once the decision is made, we manage our behavior based on the decision. I'll tell you one other thing that I heard, Dave, that I thought was really cool. For those of you that listen to the show and you're debt-free and you're still part of this amazing community of people, it was a friend who was on their own debt-free journey that said, whoa, slow down on that house purchase. Slow down. And a friend said, hey, maybe consider this.

And because of that friend and group of friends, they discovered financial peace. Don't forget that as you're going through a journey and you're getting freedom and hope to share that with others, you may be the lifeline that they needed. That'll move things along for sure. Very good stuff. Well done. They're heroes.

They're awesome. Love it, love it, love it. This is The Ramsey show We'll be right back. ken coleman ramsey personality is my co-host today christy wright our co-host in crime another ramsey personality has launched the pre-sale of her brand new book take back your time the guilt-free guide to life balance years, Christy was stretched way too thin. She is a mom of three with a full-time career. She realized something had to change, and she took a long, hard look at her life, and she figured out why she felt overwhelmed and why she felt overcommitted all the time,

and she figured out that balance is about doing the right things at the right time. The new book is Take Back Your Time, The Guilt-Free Guide to Life Balance. If you pre-order right now while it's on sale, it comes out in September, you get $50 worth of free bonus items. It includes the audio book read by Christy, the e-book, access to the Take Back Your Time

live stream, and a lot more. So all you do is go to RamseySolutions.com, pre-order your copy of Christy's new book, Take Back Your Time, and get it done today. Ken, we've got a big announcement coming up next week on your new stuff. Oh, exciting. Can't tell about it. Yeah, I know. It's a big secret.

Big secret. Not really. I need to stop, or Dave's got this little button he pushes. Shock me right here. It would be great television. No, they've got a button in there. It's a check button, and I go out through the roof when I launch something. Sooner than it's supposed to launch, I get launched.

Look how much enjoyment James and Kelly's faces have of the idea of that. They're just licking their chops. Their proverbial chops are being licked. Yes, indeed. Jared is in Irvine, California. Hi, Jared. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Mr. Ramsey in Irvine, California. Hi, Jared. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hey, Mr. Ramsey.

How's it going? Better than I deserve, sir. What's up in your world? Hey, so I was just calling with a question for you. I'm looking to get some guidance as to whether or not I should sell my house and move up or if I should stay where I'm at with a smaller space. I'll give you a little background real quick. We're in a two-bedroom condo right now, and we have two small children. So the boys are sharing a room, and we're going to be trying for

a third here real soon. So that's why I'm having the debate of do I sell in this awesome seller's market and try to move up and maybe stretch our budget a little thin, or do I just suck it up and try to cram three kids in a two-bedroom condo? Yeah. Are you out of debt except the condo? Yes. We're in baby steps four, five, and six. Good.

Okay. When you make the move up, are you going to do it on a 15-year fixed where the payment's no more than a fourth of your take-home pay? Yes, that's the plan. Okay. If you can do that, I don't have anything against it. That was part of my question, too, just trying to figure out how much exactly I can afford without stretching too far.

25% of your take-home pay is a payment on a 15-year fixed rate. And if you do that, you know, you're not going to be stretched too thin. You're going to be okay. The problem gets in is because, let me tell you, the mortgage company will approve you for almost twice that much. Almost twice that much. In other words, they'll move you over to a 30 from a 15, and then they'll jam that ratio all the way as high as they can jam it up in the high 30s, up close to 40% of your take-home pay.

And then you're on a 30-year mortgage, and now you're owned by them, which is the goal. Instead, our goal is to get you into that mortgage and get you into that house and then get you back out of that mortgage. And that's why we do a 15-year fix. Let get it paid off in 10 then and have a game plan to get at it but it does sound like you need to move dude you got kids coming out everywhere it's just like you got a you got a whole stack of them there man the two boys in the room you can manage that but with a third one for a third one changes that whole equation yeah yeah and it's it's obviously getting tight in there but um yeah you just can't use the old, I'm in California excuse, because, you know, math still works in California,

in spite of what some of the politicians say. Math still works in California. So it's still what has to happen there. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Tiffany's next in austin texas hi tiffany how are you hi mr ramsey i'm a new listener and um a colleague has suggested that i i call in today okay um so recently i've been really focusing on paying off my debt with my husband. And this morning I was served papers from a student loan that I thought was no longer my responsibility. It was a private student loan that I had gotten out years ago with my deceased grandfather. At the time, we couldn't afford to pay it back when my grandfather passed away, newly married. And then I started disputing it on my credit report on both TransUnion and Equifax.

And each time I disputed it, it came back that it was not my debt. And it has since come off all of my credit reporting over the last three to four years. I did notice whenever I got served this morning, I went and checked, and it was on my Equifax report. But I'm just not sure what to do with this being that I've never been sued or anything like that. It kind of scares you, doesn't it? Yeah. I'm a little bit emotional today, so I told my husband, like, I'm going to call. I don't want to cry.

My mom just passed away a few months ago, so I'm like, I'm going to cry. That's okay. I'm sorry. So. I don't want to cry. My mom just passed away a few months ago. I'm like, I'm going to cry. That's okay. I'm sorry. So how much is the debt? So the real thing is there's actually two of them, but they are only sending it for one. It's $12,930.80. Okay. Well, here's the equation.

If you signed a contract saying that you owe the debt when you took it out with your grandfather then you are liable whether it's on your credit bureau report or not does not affect your legal liability you can have something that is never on your credit bureau report and you're legally liable because you signed a contract saying you would pay it. If, however, your grandfather signed it, and you're listed as the person who got the money for college, but you did not sign the agreement, then you are not liable, and you will need an attorney.

So we don't know, based on what you've told me. Do you have any documents from any of this? Yeah, I'm looking at it. It does have me as signature of borrower, and then it has my grandfather's signature of cosigner. Okay, so you're looking at the actual loan agreement, not the lawsuit. I'm looking at the lawsuit. They have several exhibits.

Okay, and one of the exhibits is the original loan document. Correct. And it has you as the borrower. It has you as the borrower. Okay. Well, I'm sorry. You're liable. You signed as a borrower.

How old were you when you signed that? I was six. I can't even do that math right now uh 23 okay okay you're you're over 18 so you're liable okay i'm not an attorney but that's the correct answer all right when you sign a loan document as the borrower that means you're liable to pay it does that make make sense? Yes, sir. So, here's what we're going to do. They say $12,000. Y'all have any money? We can. How much money do you have? Do you have any money?

Saved right now, I think our savings account maybe has $1,500 in it. What can you scrape together beyond that? My next big check will be in November, and so I'll have an additional $10,000. Okay. So you have a debt of

$12,000. That's what they're suing you for, correct? Correct. Okay. And this is how many years ago? From 2006. 2006. 15 years. Okay.

So, yeah, I would call them and say, I don't have any money. I'm broke. I just got served. I didn't even realize I was liable until I read this exhibit. I do have $1,500. If you will accept that as settlement in full, we can settle this today. They probably won't take that. But you probably can get it for about $0.25 on the dollar, not $0.10 on the dollar.

So if you can scrape together another $1,500, you probably can settle this for about $3,000. If you can get them to agree to that on the phone, you get that in writing. You do not give them electronic access to your checking account. And then you wire them the money directly or you send them a money order or a prepaid debit card or something that does not interfere with your regular monies but scrape together a couple of thousand bucks here two to three thousand dollars i think you can talk them into taking that as a settlement in full get it in writing before you send it to them and do not let them into your personal checking account as a part of the deal.

In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Troy and Holly are with us. Hey, guys. How are you? Awesome. Welcome. Where do you guys live? We're from Goshen, Indiana. Goshen.

South Bend area. Yes. All right. I think I see a Notre Dame thing on your shirt. Yeah. I didn't know if I needed to hide that or anything. There it is. No. We allow almost anybody in here.

Welcome. So you're here to do a debt-free scream. How much have you paid off? We paid off $65,000 in 30 months. Very good. And your range of income during that time? Actually went from $52,000 to $48,000. Down.

Okay. There's a story here, huh? Yeah, there's a little bit of a story. I'm a high school math teacher, and I was a varsity boys basketball coach for eight years and actually decided to step down during our debt-free journey. I just felt, as you'll see in a little bit, our kids and our family was growing. We have five kids and just felt like it was time to take a step back. And it was cool to see God work out the details of when we actually took less income and had

some other things pop up during that time. Very cool. Good for you. What kind of debt was the $65,000? It was all our house. Oh, you paid off your house. We're looking at weird people. Yes, you are.

How old are you guys? I'm 37 and my wife is 36. Wow. That's awesome stuff. Paid for house, man. You're so weird. What's this house worth? I would say in the market we're in, I'd say $180,000 to $200,000, somewhere in there.

I'll go with that. Very good. Man, that's whack. You're not even 40 and you have a paid-for house. Tell us about this journey. What happened two and a half years ago that made you guys lean into this? Well, it really starts 16 years ago. So 16 years ago next month will be our anniversary, our 16-year anniversary.

And this is a God story. We're on our honeymoon 16 years ago driving to Tennessee and driving down to Florida later on. And back in those days, we didn't use our phone to listen to podcasts and everything. We were using the old seek and scan button on the radio. This thing called a radio in your car. Yeah, it's amazing, right? And we're just looking for some good music to listen to and whatever. And this guy comes on the radio.

It's a talk show. He's talking about plastectomies. He's talking about baby steps. He's talking about debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage is taking the place of the BMW as a status symbol of choice. And it caught me right away. And I had never heard of you before that. And I'm like, I'm getting this. So when we got back home off our honeymoon, we did the old Google search and found out that you were on in our area.

I just never knew it, and so I started listening to the show. And for 16 years, we've just been slowly, slowly making good decisions, and it ends in this. Very cool. Very cool. So you whittled away and walked all the way through the baby steps. Yeah, essentially, we had bought a used car right before we got married. I put it on to payments because we didn't know any better, right? And right away, I hear you talking about that's not okay.

And so once I graduated college and we were able to have my teacher income and so on, we started attacking the car and then my student loans. And at that point, we've been debt-free from that probably 12 plus years. And then I knew at some point we wanted to get the house. That was the big one. And so 30 months ago is where the story comes in. 30 months ago, it was my birthday. I would have been turning 35

and we had 65,000 left on the mortgage. And I looked there and said, I want this done by the time I'm 40. And we literally took out some old construction paper, made a house that we colored in every month. The kids got involved in that. And we put it on our bathroom door. And every month I just looked forward to getting that thing, and that became our motivation.

And I said I want to do it before I'm 40, and I'm turning 38 next month. So it was just amazing to see God work out the details on that journey. Did you step away from coaching? Yes. Yeah, that's a sacrifice. I know a lot of coaches, a lot of coaches, a lot of coaches that they couldn't conceive of not being a coach. And I can see that you love coaching to step aside like that,

to spend more time with the family. And that's a big sacrifice. Talk about how that paid off and where that goes from there. Yeah, I think what I've learned is in life, I love coaching, you know, and when I put it in God's hands and follow, even if it doesn't feel right or seem right, I believe in his hands, things work out.

And, you know, like this summer, I was able to coach my son's little league. Next year, I'll coach a seventh grade basketball team instead of the varsity basketball team that my son is on. There you go. And being able to still do what I love, but in a different avenue with less pressure,

less time, and still being around my family. So follow up to that. So I love but in a different avenue with less pressure, less time, and still being around my family. So follow up to that. So I'm reading into what you said. So you stepped back from coaching. That's where the pay went down? Correct. But then you said God brought some other pay in,

some other income to show up. Yeah, so that would just be my teaching salary that I mentioned. But I work at a golf course in the summers and pick up odds and ends. And again, here's another God thing. So the year that I quit high school coaching, I had no intent of going to the college game. And Labor Day, I quit in April. And Labor Day weekend, I get a call from a college coach saying, I need an assistant.

I'm desperate. Will you help me out? And wasn't planning on that, but I did do college coaching for a year and ended up financially being blessed more than what the high school position was. So just to see. That's cool. A lot of people don't know that part of the story. Wow.

Pretty cool. Well done. How's it feel, Holly, to not have a payment? It feels amazing. Freeing. What's the first big thing you guys are going to do now that you don't have a house payment? I think we want to save up for a family cruise maybe. That's a good plan.

I like that one. And just that for me like we've said no so many times you know on this just the little things i look forward to the yeses that i can give my kids now that's powerful yeah no no means yes later that's what it means if you live like no one else later you can live and give like no one else i love it very cool what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is? You've been on a long journey here. I would say just persistence and it seems like you'll never get there, but you do. And one day you're just like, wow, that just happened. That little construction house up there on the door is done.

Yes, it is. And I want to take a special shout out to my wife because we haven't talked about what she does. She has the harder job. She stays home, right? And she does some homeschooling with our kids. And we have foster care and adoption in our story as well. And she's the real hero. You know, I'm able to do what I want with teaching and coaching and doing those things. But when she stays home and takes care of the family and is able and financially, we have been on the same page all of our marriage.

I don't think we've ever had a money fight. And just to have a wife that been on the same page all of our marriage. I don't think we've ever had a money fight. And just to have a wife that is on the same page. And the day that, like, the amount that we owed on the house minus our emergency fund, that day that we had the money to do it. Like, lump sum, let's finish this baby off. I get home from school. I'm like, babe, like, it's there. We can take it out.

And the emergency fund is still there. And I'm just kind of waiting for that day and seeing what she would say. And, like, instantly, she's like, well, get to the bank right now. Like, let's there. We can take it out, and the emergency fund is still there. And I'm just kind of waiting for that day and seeing what she would say. And, like, instantly she's like, well, get to the bank right now. Like, let's go. And so just to have a teammate that has been like that has just been awesome. She's a real hero. Well done, you guys. Well done.

Very proud of y'all. Who are your biggest cheerleaders outside the two of you? Yeah, I was going to say it's mostly been ourselves, but we definitely have people that are supportive, and they're definitely happy when we talk about it. So we've been blessed. That's good. Very cool. We got a copy of the Legacy Journey for you.

That's what you've done. You've changed this whole family tree financially. Well done. And also a copy of the Total Money Makeover for you to give away and start someone on their journey that, like that crazy guy on the radio all those years ago as you were driving through Tennessee. Go figure. Very, very cool.

Good for you guys. So you brought the kiddos with you. Let's put them into the shot, and give me their names and ages. So Kylie is almost 14. Drew is 12. Jeremiah is 11. Brayden is 8. And Cameron, he's almost 5, but he's four all right very cool so good

to have you guys a good looking family well done well done well done all right it's troy and holly and the tribe from south bend indiana area 65 000 paid off in 30 months that's the house and everything making 52 down to 48. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. All right, you guys ready? To God be all the glory, honor, and praise. Three, two, one. We're debt-free!

We're debt-free! High fives all around, Dave. That's awesome. That's how we do it. I love it. That's how Coach does it at his Dave. That's awesome. That's how we do it. I love it. That's how Coach does it at his house. I love it. Very, very cool stuff.

Absolutely amazing. Good-looking family. Yeah. Oh, it's so fun. There's something about having the whole family celebrate. Yeah. You can see a lot of teamwork between that husband and wife, certainly with the kids getting it.

That's a special moment. That wasn't just a performance there. They're genuinely happy the way they're giving themselves away through foster care, adoption, and just they've set a course, Dave, that, as you know, it's going to be hard to keep that family's legacy down. It's only $50,000 a year. They don't have a house payment. No, sir. They don't have a house payment.

This is pretty incredible. I mean, they really have pulled off something here. That's pretty. On a teacher salary, folks. Yeah. There it is again. Those teachers, they pop up everywhere. I love it.

I love it. Very well done. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. Good hour, Ken. Good hour, James Childs, our producer. Kelly Daniel, our associate producer and phone screener. I am Dave Ramsey, your host, and we'll be back. Hey, it's Kelly, associate producer for The Ramsey Show.

This episode is over, but if you heard about an event, product, or service and didn't have a chance to write it down, don't worry. We list everything you've heard about during this episode in the podcast show notes section or head to theramseyshow.com. Thanks for listening.