The Ramsey Show - App - Run for Your Life From This! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: September 22, 2023

What up, what up? Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and learn how to be in the same room together. Have great relationships. I'm John Deloney, joined by my friend Jade Warshaw, and we're taking your calls on work, money, life, relationships, mental health, whatever you got going on, we're here to help. 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Let's go out to Walla Walla Walla Walla, Washington and talk to Sarah. What's up, Sarah? Hey. What's up? Well, I've got a kind of interesting question. Interest rates are really bad right now. I know that.

I understand that. We have a situation with our neighbors that has just become increasingly toxic. And we've had to, like, call the police on them. And a lot of bad things have gone down. I won't go into all the details. But I still would like to move because I feel like this is a bad situation for me and my family. And I feel like we can afford to move. But my husband is just, it's killing him to try to sell this house with the interest rates. What would

you say? Because what's your interest rate right now? It's like 7%, something around there. Yeah. Okay. And the houses are expensive in this area yeah so the house you're living in now how long have you been living there we've been living here for eight years and you've got seven percent it's not less um right now we're at like a 2.5 15 year okay that's a great rate he doesn't want to sell yeah that's what i wanted to verify when you said it was seven i was like wait what um yeah gotcha gotcha look that's the that's the quandary that's the conundrum that so many americans are facing it's like okay am i just going to live in this house forever because i didn't intend to but at the same time i don't

want to take you know five percent hit in hit on my interest rate so, the way I like to frame this in my brain is you don't let the market interest rates, all these other factors that we can't control determine when it's time to buy a house. What determines truly when it's time for you to buy a house, when it's time for you to move is A, if you can afford to, and B, if you want to, and they have to go together. If you can afford to and be if you want to and they have to go together if you can afford to that's thing one that's got to be in place and then you've got like do I do we want to move is this the best for us and for the picture that we have of our family so those are the things that go together in this case it sounds like they're both aligning but it sounds like your husband is a little bit more like looking at the numbers he's more of the math guy right and he's a little bit of a looking at the numbers. He's more of the math guy, right?

He's a little bit of a scrooge, yeah. Okay, but hold on. Give me some insight into what's going on. Because if I had a bad neighbor situation where I had to call the police to keep my family safe, and my wife came to me in tears and said, I've got to get out of here, I don't care what the... We're renting. I know got to get out of here. I don't care what the, we're, we're renting.

I know, right? I'm out. So either the neighbors aren't that bad. Are they loud? Are they sitting in like a, one of those little kiddie pools that they got at Walmart and they're drinking too much? Or are they selling like drugs and crack? Yeah.

Are they violent? Yeah. Oh, there's a combo. There's a lot of music, but also, also, the wife has become increasingly hostile to my husband, screaming and swearing at him. And just for, like, whenever she can. And then their kids have been just historically really unkind to my kids. But then now they've just taken to always flipping them off. And then it got really bad.

Rocks were thrown at our house. And there was messages written on our driveway saying, move out, and all this kind of stuff. And so we called the cops. The cops solicited cameras. And after we did, the wife in this other house published online that we're perverts trying to watch them in their pool. I really feel like I'm on, like, Maury right now.

Like, this is good radio. You are not the father. And then we told him to get off my lawn. No, I'm just kidding. This is, this is like, this is like taking us back to middle school,

like elementary school. So I would, I don't know. Why is it your husband concerned about this? He is. He is. We had the cops come over. The cops saw footage of our cameras

and saw we're not looking at them at all. We're just looking at our own property because they're the ones who are throwing the rocks. We've done it many times and we just need camera proof now. And anyways, so he is upset. We had the cops tell them not to trespass, but at the same time, like, they're still flipping us off. It's just still an ugly situation.

Well, so, okay, so it's twofold here. Number one, you have a picture of your house of this life you want to have and it's where all the adults are rational and all the kids get along and that's not your world right right right so you have to make peace with either a i'm going to teach my kids there's just some those kids are growing up in a tough situation and so we are going to not give them space in our souls we're going to head out and you're not going to play with them they're rude and if they flip you off that's that's rude and we're going to move on or you can walk away and the it's that old saying not by your hand but in your lap you didn't cause this

and yet here it is and when you take responsibility for your own life it always always comes with consequences always i refuse to be abused anymore okay well now you're a single mom and you're gonna have to figure it out yeah i refuse to be in debt anymore okay tough guy now you got to work three jobs for the next two years it always comes with something so if you say i am sick of my kids getting flipped off, which you should be, by the way, I'm sick of my husband. Next thing, she's going to accuse my husband of something and it's going to be a mess. Totally get it. And you're going to have to sacrifice 4% on an interest rate somewhere or rent for a year. Well, let's talk about these dollars and cents because I want to know a little

bit more of whether if you do choose to move, if you truly can buy a house or if you would be renting, because I definitely don't want you to think you can afford to move and buy another house if you truly can't. So do you have any other debt? No, we we really have tried to do the Dave Ramsey principles and we don't have any other debt. Yeah, we have a house that's worth $440,000. We have $140,000 left on it. So we do have a big chunk to put down on another house. I have to find a buyer in this market. Okay. And do you have an idea of where you would go? Have you started pricing out things? Are you just making a lateral move? Are you trying to move up? Oh, you've been looking for houses for months haven't you yes yeah you have the offer yeah yeah but it's helped you anyways she's like i don't want to talk about that um yeah i don't yeah sorry so as long

as you you know obviously you and your husband have to get on the same page about this and you know the way we teach i don't want you going into a 30-year mortgage. I want you on a 15-year fixed. Is that what you were looking at? We were going to do the 30 and then change. Girl, you would. No, no, no. Come on, Sarah. Do you know why we suggest a 15-year fixed? Right. So you can build wealth. Yeah. I don't want you in debt for 30 years. In 30 years, you're going to be, I'm going to guess, 60. You don't want to be paying a mortgage that long. I want you out of debt so you can build wealth. So 15-year fix where the payment's no more than 25% of your take-home pay.

And family, put a sign in the yard. Y'all are spending months worrying about how long it's going to take to sell the house. You could have had a sign in the yard 60 days ago, and you'd be halfway home. Put the house up for sale and see what happens, and then be ready to rock and roll. Make your move. We'll be right back. Welcome back to the Ramsey Show. George and the EveryDollar team are hosting free live virtual trainings this month

to help you get clarity with your money. You'll learn how to find more margin in your finances, spend guilt-free, and make a budget that works for you. The next one is happening September 26th at 1230 Eastern, 1130 AM Central. Spots are limited, so register for free at everydollar.com slash budgeting. Everydollar.com slash budgeting. And don't forget, October

5th, the Building a Non-Anxious Life release party extravaganza. They've let me plan the whole thing, and it's going to be wheels off. It's here at the Ramsey Event Center. Tickets are $ 35 bucks and that includes a book that and i'll stay all night sign them we'll hang out with everybody we'll take every

photo you want to take it well not the weird ones and we are going to have a blast lots of surprises lots of fun maybe even dumb button will make a uh an appearance interesting probably not but that would be rad we need to set that up and that'd be would be very cool. So go to JohnDelaney.com, get a ticket, come visit, come hang out. We're going to have a blast. Let's roll out to Portland and talk to Duke. What's up, Duke? Hey, what's going on? We're getting it, man.

What about you? I'm just hanging in there. Hey, so I have a question about I'm getting a new job that requires me to move to Oklahoma for about six months for training. Oh, God. Why did you do that? Well, it's a good job. It's for air traffic control. I know, but it's Oklahoma.

I know. That's north of Texas. It's basically southern Canada if you grew up in Texas. No, no. No, I'm playing. Oklahoma's awesome. Okay, so you're moving to Oklahoma to air traffic controller to keep all the planes in the air.

We're grateful for you. And what's up? I'd have to go there for training, and then after that, I'm going to be located somewhere for probably about three years to finish the training. So I'm going to be renting for a while. I own a house right now. And I'm just trying to figure out what would be the best course if I should rent it out or if I should sell it.

Because I got a really good interest rate. And if I were to sell it, it's already worth like 100 grand more than I paid for it. Yeah. I just don't know. If it were me, if I were in your shoes and I were moving from Oregon to Oklahoma and then having kind of like this training period, trial period for, you know, a couple of years of my life, I would definitely sell the house. Because A, you don't live there anymore. And renting it while you're states and states away, like half a country away, that's going to be so stressful. You're going to have to hire property management. That's a thing in and of itself. I mean,

you're going to be living in a state where you're just constantly wondering what's going on with this property. So I would offload it this property so i would be a long distance you know long distance landlord man yeah that sounds terrible to me i'll take 100 grand and count my lucky stars and be happy let's take it let's take a page out of dave ramsey playbook dave ramsey would say if you lived in oklahoma would you off the top of your head go you know what i want a rental property let me buy one in in Portland, Oregon. That's a great place for me. You would never do that, right? Right. So it's this idea of, hey, I've already put money and time and energy into this property.

It's sometimes hard for us to cut ties with that when really it's like, hey, that season is over. Go ahead and cut ties. You don't have to keep dumping more money and time and energy into it just because you have for so long. You can cut ties and you can move on. And it made you $100,000. Yeah, that's great. Well done, dude. Drop that in a high-yield savings account.

Do you have any other debt? Just two cars. Well, it's only like $10,000 total. Okay, so pay off your debt and dump the rest in a high-yield savings account and sit on it for a couple of that's what i would do and when you go to oklahoma don't buy a truck and jack it up or a honda civic and lower it really low and get one of those mufflers that sounds like a bumblebee trap inside of a dryer vent don't do that either those may be the two cars that's so funny i going to get so much hate from Oklahoma.

I was going to say, is that what you think the Oklahomians do? That's what I know, Jade. Oklahomians? No, when you grow up in Texas, they just teach you to love the states on your east and west. And across

that river. Alright, let's go to Columbia and talk to the great and powerful Adam. What's up, Adam? Hello? Hello. What's going on? What's up, man? Oh, I just wasn't ready.

Gotcha. I love this show. This show is great. What's up? I was very... So I just got off the phone with my mom a couple hours ago. Um, me and my fiance were saving up for a wedding. I just paid off about $30,000 in debt yesterday or a couple of days ago.

Cause I sold my truck, got, uh, some traveling expenses paid from, from my transition out of the military. Okay. And now I, uh, we were talking about car insurance for the new beater I just got with my mom and it was like three four it was like 365 for six months and I'm like oh that's awesome it's a really good deal and she was like okay but you have to pay the six months right now and I'm like oh well I don't have the money right now it's fitting into this budget um next month we can budget it in and get it and she was like oh why don't you just

put it on her credit card and I said well we canceled all of her credit cards like I canceled all of them and then she went crazy I mean mainly because she loves me and she only cares about me but like I've never seen my mom get so mad about something before and some need cancel my credit cards and then one thing led to another and i was like oh well we don't really need credit because i plan on getting the 15-year fixed rate and then she's like oh and then yeah when because she's a real estate broker and because she went crazy about how by the time i save up a down payment well houses will go on crazy yeah so basically i just my question is is i i know the answer to my own

question but i'm not really sure it feels wrong because i'm like defying my mom and like doing my own thing how old are you but yeah how old are you 23 23 you veteran for you did four years yeah are you still in uh i did five and a half, six. I'm in the reserves now. Okay. So I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing by not having any open lines of credit and canceling everything. Here's the thing. Here's what I want to tell you, and John's going to really hit this.

You're grown. You don't have to do what we tell you on the radio, and you don't have to do what your mom tells you the radio and you don't have to do what your mom tells you. You're a grown man and you get to make decisions. So since you called and asked for our advice, we'll give you our advice and then you're going to go and decide what you want to do with that. I think that it's a great idea to take debt off the table and not utilize debt. Now, I also don't want you driving around for a month without car insurance. So I want to make sure you are fully insured in the correct way. All right. So that's thing one. Thing two is no, I don't think you should go into debt

so that you can pay ahead. Thing three is I think you need to trust yourself and trust the information that you're gathering and trust it and understand it enough to where you can stand up for it. It's not a thing of I'm doing this because they said to or I'm doing this because my mom said to. So that's what I want to challenge you with. And then John. You're about to get married. You're a U.S. veteran. Your mommy does not need to be buying your car insurance for you.

Go to Xander.com and buy your own car insurance like a grown man. Okay? Yeah, so it is me buying my own car insurance. She just went and did the quote for me. And I already do have insurance through Geico. Okay, great. I'm not trying insurance through Geico. Okay, great. I'm not trying to break the law. No, dude, it's all good.

But if you can learn what I'm about to tell you right now and you just lodge this away in your back pocket forever, it's going to give you a leg up on life. Just because it doesn't feel good doesn't mean it's not the right move. There may be a season where you have to go have a really uncomfortable conversation with your kid's teacher or the kid's principal. It's not going to feel good. You don't want to have that conversation. You're going to feel all like, am I doing the right thing? Yes, you go do it. Just because your mom has chosen to do with

money a certain way her whole life. and by the way, you probably would not be doing what you're doing if that had worked for her or if she had had a home that was full of peace. You're choosing to do something different because you grew out of that system. And like you said, your mom's a good woman. She's doing the best she could. You've just got some new information and some better information on how to build a peaceful, non-anxious house, right? So I'm not going to drink the haterade. I'm not going to get mad at my mom. And my mom doesn't get a vote on how me and my future wife spend our money, do our finances. You're on the right path, man. Just because it feels weird. So choose guilt over resentment

every time. Guilt over resentment. You feel guilty about defying your mom, but I don't want to resent my mom by getting a bunch of credit cards. You're the man. I'm proud of you. Love it. Hey, welcome back to the Ramsey Show. And on the debt-free stage, we've got Jamie and John from Dayton, Ohio. What up?

Hey, thanks for having us. Of course. Y'all doing well? Oh, great. Yes. Doing good. You don't look nervous at all. Terrified.

Hey, I assure you, I don't know what I'm doing either. So y'all are cute. All right. So you're on the debt-free stage. How much did you pay off? We paid about $24,000. 24 grand? How long did it take? Five-free stage. How much did you pay off? We paid about $24,000. 24 grand? How long did it take?

Five months. Yes. How much were you making? Right around $100,000 the whole time. Love it. Love it, love it. So what kind of debt was this $24,000? It was the rest of our mortgage.

Let's go! Woo! Yes. Weird people. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Hey, and making $100,000, if we take out taxes in dayton

24 grand in five months y'all got after it oh we we sold some stuff yeah you did yeah a lot of um old pokemon cards from 20 years ago video games yeah not the pokemon james just gasped james just clutched his pearls wow he has pokemon like tattooed across his chest he can hardly breathe in there right now yeah who's pokemon cards they were mine they were mine i was a nerd wow i mean i still am but yeah the fact that they are worth 24 000 is what's got me shut yeah so the most expensive card we had was an autographed lord of the rings card and it sold for 19001,900 on eBay. Wow. That was the most expensive.

Yes. But most of them sold between 99 cents to $300 or so. Wow. Yes. I don't even know what's happening right now. This is incredible. This is incredible. So I want to know more.

I mean, you had 24,000 left on your mortgage. What happened five months ago that made you be like, you know what? Let left on your mortgage. What happened five months ago that made you be like, you know what, let's go. Yeah, well, we started the, we started the Ramsey plan in like 2017. We bought the house in 2010 and we had been paying off like maybe an extra $80 or so per month, just slowly trying to get it down.

And it was probably September of last year when I was listening to the show and within like one week span I heard George tell two different people like you can't be doing all these different things at once like you're trying to pay off debt you're trying to like invest in things and that was mostly for baby step two but I was like you know maybe we should be doing the same thing because we were trying to save up for vacation pay off the house and save up for a water heater doing all the things so one night I came up to John and I said can we just like do that ourselves and like put all of that money and energy toward paying off the house instead so we started in September and we like I said sold all the trading

cards and video games and we took some money out of our non-emergency savings just found whatever other savings we had we ended up paying off ten thousand dollars in one of those months let's go and then finally in february the end of february we paid off the whole house wow all right john so i'm assuming y'all met when you were both students at hogwarts is that right stop no no no no okay so how did you end up on this journey uh well we bought the house in 2010 and uh we came to the marriage debt-free uh that was something that you know we kind of pride ourselves on and just kind of slowly and steady the entire time and so this has just been a way y'all do life oh yeah oh yeah pretty much yes wow so what does it feel i mean how many months

have passed have you had one month where you had, you haven't made the payment? Yeah, we paid it off in February. So it's been a few months. We, it hasn't, it doesn't feel any different. I mean, my income had dropped a little bit after that. So we weren't able to save, you know, more money than what the mortgage payment was, but I mean, the income is coming back up again. So now we're starting to be able to save more money to give more money. So now it's feeling incredible now. So that's the financial side of the feelings. I want to know what does it feel like to get in your bed, no payments.

I mean, come on. I mean, it feels really, really good. It does. It is very, very freeing for sure. It still doesn't feel real. Yeah. Every now and then I go in the backyard. I'm like, we don't have a mortgage anymore.

You just got to pinch yourself, you know? Yes. I could just see you in the backyard with like a sword pointing to the sky and be like, I'm debt free. That's amazing, man. Yes. All right.

So there's a very practical side to this. You've got this beautiful little girl over here and she's grown up in a house that's been largely debt-free so you often had that stress that almost every family in america has how much of a role did looking over and seeing her and saying we want to be able to do this vacation we want to be able to say yes to stuff we don't want to be moms and dads have to say note everything what role did she play in inspiring y'all to get this thing paid off i mean we we definitely knew from the start

we wanted her to go to college debt-free. So we started putting money aside toward her college and just knowing that she didn't have to grow up or grow up, go to school, having to go through all the debt and everything to be able to be financially free to do what she wants to do. All right, speak to...

Sorry, Jade. I'm fascinated by Jamie and and john they're amazing they are amazing i mean most people don't do life i mean life like that they enter in the marriage with no debt they just say oh we're just gonna pay our house off and they just up and do it yes so i may know a guy that pathologically collects books and guitars and you know james and george camel are obsessed with their pokemon cards right what do you tell people who have these collections sitting in a box in the back of their house that has that has obvious value and it's hard to part with it what do you tell what have you missed since you don't have those cards in the back room? I mean, I'm enjoying all the space that I have now. Let's go.

Practicality. I mean, I did have a hoarder mentality for a while, but trying to declutter my life, declutter the house, it's like I don't really need all those things anymore. We're having fun doing what we have, and if we're not using it anymore, then why keep it around? John, did you sacrifice anything? Not so much just kind of the uh the monthly income just kind of trying to put that away and uh you know spend

that as wisely as we can see that's awesome so the mentality behind it you guys you guys have your mind right right yes you both have your head on straight john's like you know i'm willing to do what i have to do with my income you're like i'm willing to do what I have to do with things that are personal to me that I value. And really at the end of the day, that's what you need in order to have success. So I'm proud of you guys. That's excellent. Slow and steady wins the race. Every single time. That's right. Allison, do you want to join them up there? No, no. That's very cool, man. I love that. My kids would have run up and be like, yeah, look at me. Look at me. That's awesome. So give one piece of wisdom to somebody, a couple who is trying to like, is looking at each other, listening to this, the same as you heard George say,

they're watching this call and like 24,005 months. We could do that. We could do that. I'm not selling my fill in the blank. Give one word of wisdom. I'm here for both of you. Well, definitely the budget meetings definitely helped. I'm not a money person, not a numbers person. And I didn't really like doing the meetings at first, but being able to get together once a month and look at where we are, where we're going, being on the same page on everything, that has definitely helped along the way. And just kind of being on the same page with each other, being able to have that communication. Yes, we can do this. No, we can't.

The budget is really actually very freeing because there are times when it's like, she wants to go out and spend money on this. I want to go out and spend money on that. And we can do that because we plan for it. It's in the budget. Now that you don't have a mortgage, you can do anything.

And shout out to the EveryDollar team for helping us out with that too. Come on, somebody. So we have John and Jamie and the incredible Allison off to the helping us out with that too. Come on somebody. Awesome. So we have John and Jamie and the incredible Allison off to the side here from Dayton, Ohio. They've lived a debt-free life

except for this mortgage that's been hanging around since 2010. Five months ago they looked at each other and said, I'm in, you in? And they high-fived

and they did like, is there like a Pokemon thing? Is there a thing that they do? Super sane. Gotta catch them all. Gotta catch them all. Gotta catch them all. They caught them all. And then sold some stuff, saved all the money,

paid off $24,000 in five months, and they are debt free. They don't even have a mortgage. Count it down. Let's hear a debt free scream. All right. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Awesome.

And hey, we're going to give you a copy of Baby Steps Millionaires. That's the next finish line in your journey there. And we're going to give you a copy of Total Money Makeover that you can give to a friend or a family member or just your neighbor and says, why are you guys smiling and laughing all the time? Because we don't owe anybody anything. You what? And you can hand them that book and that'll be our gift to you. And they've got the FPU in there too. Oh, that's right.

That's right. Yeah. The actual thing you can hand out FPU to somebody who needs it. I love it. Jade, it never gets old. It's my favorite part of the job. I know. It's great.

It's my favorite part of the job. Watching people be free. Yes. I love it. Hey, we'll be right back. This is The Ramsey Show. This is The Ramsey Show. I'm John Deloney, joined by Jade Warshall. Today's scripture of the day is Ecclesiastes 7, 8. The end of something is better than its beginning. Patience is better than arrogance. Dr. Jordan Peterson says, the successful among us delay gratification

and bargain with the future. You're going to have this stuck in my head all day. Sorry. And I can't finish that line. Let's go to Baltimore and talk to Brad. What's up, Brad? Yeah, hello. Thanks for having me.

Thanks for calling in, man. What's up? Okay, so I'm 25 years old. Graduated college. I got in an accident, but it wasn't my fault. I got a 2020 Toyota Camryry 28k and i have about 26 left in student loans um the reason i got the car wasn't just to show off was because um i needed a car to get to work i'm a field engineer for a general contractor make about

81k a year my question, if I sell the car, when I finish Baby Step 1, will I be, and will I basically still owe on the car? Or should I wait to, I save about $1,500 a month because I live at home and I'm single. Will I want to be smarter to save, will I want to be smarter to save like five to six months and then try to get a used car,

then sell the car, and then pay the balance? Or should I sell the car, get a used car, and then continue making payments to it? So let me just make sure I understand your numbers. Did you say you owe $28,000 on the car? No, that's my student loan. I owe $26,000. Currently, I owe $23,000, but it's a total of $26,000. Okay, so you owe $23,000 on the car and $26,000 on student loans. it's a total of 26. Okay. I'm paying 600 a month, yes.

You owe 23 on the car and 26 on student loans. Yes. Okay. You owe 23 on the car, but what's the car worth? 26. Okay. Yeah, the fact that you can make money on this if you sell it is good.

So what I would do is I would stack up maybe two or three more thousand dollars from your income in the next month or two. And I would sell this car and I would put the $3,000 with your other $3,000 and I'd buy a $6,000 cash car. And then I would use your income, all the extra income that you can get your hands on, and I would pay off thousand dollar cash car and then I would use your income all the extra income that you can get your hands on and I would pay off the student loan in a year and I was thinking about two things you're talking doing I was thinking about getting a second job the only reason why is because the project I'm on it's like it's it's a time conflict it's a time conflict so it's like it doesn't work. So I'm like trying to find other means

and like making money. But if you believe I can make it in a year, I'm gonna try my best to make it in a year. It's just you when you live at home and you make $80,000 a year. You have no expenses. Your two major expenses, the two major expenses are home and home mortgage.

And by the way, if you're a renter, that's the most variable expense. You don't have that. Then under that for most people is the car payment. You're getting rid of that. Top Ramen and Chef Boyardee only cost that so much. So I'm trying to understand what is it that you're spending your money on. You know, I'm just joking.

But do you see what I'm saying? No, I know. I know. Because I do save about 15, sometimes 2K. That's if I don't buy any food during that two weeks. But what else are you spending all the other thousands on? You're spending more. Is it a girl?

No, no, no, that's not a girl. Is it gambling? Is it Pokemon cards? Is it online? No, I don't gamble. It's because I'm actually investing in a business. I know it. I invest in my business out loud.

Why did you leave that out? You were spending stupid money. And you're ashamed of yourself, aren't you? Yeah, that's why you left it out. Come on. Come on, Brad. What are you investing in? No, it's an app that I'm investing in.

So it's currently being made at the moment. Bro, you are being played out by your friends. I want you to stop it instantly. Hey, tell me if I'm wrong. You're the buddy who made it. You made it. Your other buddies didn't, and you went and busted it. You graduated college, and you landed an $80,000 degree,

which if you're 23 is a million dollars. You have an $80,000 job, and you're living is a million dollars yeah you have an eighty thousand dollar job and you're living at home so you got no bills yeah and then your buddy's like bro i got this idea for an app and you don't want to leave your brothers behind and you're like i'll help you tell me if i'm right yeah you're right yeah bro please please oh Immediately. I need you to get out of this app. Immediately. Just tell them. Tell them, guys, I was stupid.

I'm dumb. And here's the thing. It's not in writing, right? Y'all don't have anything in writing. No. Yeah, get out. Run! Get out while you still can.

You don't want to lose any more money in this. And here's the thing. It's not that you don't, you know, like you don't have to be mean to your friend and be like, I don't think, you know, you don't have to be mean to your friend and be like i don't think you know this is not gonna make it it's just about you using your money in a in a smarter way and investing in the right in the right things at the right time and um risking it for the biscuit in this case is not brad some of my best friends on planet earth guys that would take a bullet for me that I've known for almost every day of my life. I love them like a brother and I would never invest a dime with them.

I wouldn't hire them. I wouldn't hire them. No, I know. And I love them. Those two things can happen at the same time. Okay. They're just not the working kind of guys. Can you tell us how much, how much were you putting towards this per month?

Honestly, about 1435. Okay. Paid up to 23K so far. I'm going to just take advice. Your student loan would have been gone. Bro town and Motown. You'd be free.

You'd be free. Please, please. Yeah. I, I beg need you. Yeah. I beg of you to stop investing in that. Although I still have questions because still there's a lot of thousands of dollars that's missing out of this. I'm just wondering where the other $1,500 is going.

Paul, you put $23,000 into this app? Yes. What is it? What's the app? It's handmade right now. It was an investment. I know, but what's the app? It's handmade right now. It was an investment. I know, but what's the app? It's basically

a social media app. It's a social media app for like Christians are basically helping out a friend. Hmm. What are you helping Christians do

for $23,000? Mingle. No, no, no. I already got that one, Brad. What are you, what you hope that Christians do? Basically, come together and

come together. You better not say mingle. Is it dating? No, it has nothing to do with dating. It's just coming together, reading the Word. Oh, so it's like a Bible study app. Like a Christian hangout? Come to coffee shops and let's meet up yeah basically okay cool um let's stop investing in it i think that you said that's so nice all right that's nice i mean

i think it's a cool idea i just don't think it's the the way you want to start investing i think that you're a smart guy you've got a a good income. And I would just love to see you pay off this debt. I would love to see you stack up a nice emergency fund. And here in the next year, I'd love to see you start putting 15% away in a Roth IRA and your 401k with your job and really start building real wealth. You're going to see a far better return on that investment than the Mingle app. And it's not a Mingle app. It's a Christian's Hangout app. God, Jade.

Hey, Brad, can I throw one more thing at you real quick? Yes. When you're the guy who's made it in the neighborhood and with your family, and you're making $80,000, and people see you driving a $6,000 car, they're going to let you have it. They're going to clown on you. They're going to make fun of you. They're going to give you the business.

I just want to tell you, I had a number one best-selling book in the United States on The Wall Street Journalist, and I had a nice house with my wife, and I got a place for my kids to live. And for almost all of that time, I was driving a 2012 car with a truck with almost 200,000 miles on it. A depreciating asset doesn't define you.

Okay. Is that cool? Your relationships do. Thank you very much, Dr. John Deloney. Thank you very much, Jade. I appreciate it. I'm going to take advice and I'm going to definitely get out the app

and save as much as I can. He's like, guys, stop reeling on me. Hey, I love you. We love you. We do love you. We're so, so proud of you, man. We are.

You've done some amazing, amazing things. We just want you to get taken advantage of and Christians can meet at their local church. I think that sounds like a great idea.

Good job, Brad. I'm proud of that guy. I want to thank everybody in the booth, even Ben, especially Jenna. I want to thank you, America, for listening to the show. Great job, Jade. Love hanging out. And thank you, America. Be kind to one another, pay off your debts, and we'll see you soon. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, what's up guys? It's Jade. Look, if you like what you heard in this episode and want to know

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