The Ramsey Show - App - Sacrificing for Your Future Is Tough but It’s Worth It! (Hour 3)

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you are here. Open phones here at 888-825-5225. Thanks for jumping in. We appreciate you hanging out with us. Jamal is with us in Boston to start off this particular hour.

Hey, Jamal, how are you? Hi, how are you, Vinzy? Better than we deserve. How can we help? So I basically got out of debt a few, four or five months ago. Good. And kind of been aimless with all thanks to you, by the way. You were the kickstart. So I just want to with all things to you, by the way, you were the kickstart.

So I just want to give my gratitude to you. I really appreciate that from you, from posting your videos and stuff. So thank you. So from there, now I'm kind of at this place where I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing now. I'm at my job still, but at the same time, I want to see how else I can make other money or how can I you know take the next steps to build left so I'm kind of just like confused and where I'm supposed to go

next okay so you just got some basic information about getting out of debt from and that yeah that was a few youtube things but you've not really heard the whole process. Is that what you're saying? Yes. Okay. Well, the whole process we've designed is around the basic common sense principles and the ideas that financial planners have taught for years, and we just put them in an order of attack. We call that the baby steps.

You probably did hear that. I heard the baby steps, yes. Okay. Baby step one is save $1,000. Do you have $ I heard the baby steps. Okay. Baby step one is save a thousand dollars. Do you have a thousand dollars? Yes. Okay. Two is debt-free everything but the house. You already told me you did that one, right? Correct. Then your next goal is to make sure you have a fully funded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. How much do you have in savings? $10,000.

Okay, and what do you make? I make around $65,000 to $70,000. Okay. It's not a bad emergency fund. All right? If we wanted to call that our emergency fund, fine. If you want to spoof it up and put another $5,000 in there, you can. But that's not to be touched for anything except emergencies and

probably not even then that's your that's the pad between you and life if you're going to buy something you have to save up and pay for it in a separate account okay okay now we're debt free we've got ten thousand dollars dude you're way ahead of most people already. Way to go. Now we go to baby step four, which is save 15% of your income into retirement plans, Roth IRAs, Roth 401ks with a match if you've got that at work, and I want you putting 15% around. You said you make 60?

Is that what you said? Yeah, around 60 to 70. Okay, that'd be $9,000 a year then. Okay. Okay, or about, what, 700 bucks a month, 750 bucks a month, right? It should be coming out of your check some way or another going into retirement. I take it you're single and don't have kids. Did I miss something? No, I'm 28.

I live with my mom, and that was the help that gave me the financial ability to get out of debt. I live with 70K. Good. Yeah. Good. Then I want to start putting $9,000 away for retirement. I also want to start saving some money to get out on my own. Okay. Because you're now able to. You make money to get out on my own. Okay.

Because you're now able to. You make money, you don't have any payments, right? So you need to get out on your own and set yourself up a life and, you know, go about growing your career, growing yourself, who you're going to be, what changes are we going to make. You talked about maybe changing jobs, that kind of stuff, all of that. And you're going to use some of your money to do all of that um but you don't need to jump just take your time move move careful when you move out you don't have to rush out unless your house is on fire you don't have to run out so unless there's something really bad going on

you don't have to run out but you do need to make a plan by september you need to be out of there and you need to figure out what your next steps are in your career and just systematically lay down because what happens and what you're discovering already in this process is, and, John, this is so important for people to grasp, I think, that where there is no vision, the people perish. And most people live hand-to-mouth because they don't look past friday and to jamal's credit he's looked way past friday now and he started to think long term so long term with my career long term with my living situation long term with my debt long term with my wealth building and investing and when you start thinking out there five, ten years out with your decision making, you make much better

decisions. Yeah, and it's called maturing. That's what I was going to say. It's maturing, and so sometimes maturing doesn't make math sense. Here's an example. I live with my 28-year-old mom. I don't have to pay rent ever. You need to get out on your own and get your own place, right? There's some other muscles you're going to develop, and there's some maturing that you need to do some skills you got to develop you gotta learn how to be a neighbor you gotta learn how to pay bills you gotta learn how to deal with roommates whatever it is but i can see when you get done with all this you think well just keep piling this money away well you got to start spending some of this money now you got to start creating a life that you actually want to live in right exactly exactly and so you know really i mean anytime you're

investing money into yourself, whether that's moving out on your own, taking a class to move to a different career, all of those things are short-term pain for long-term gain. Right. And that one definition of maturity, emotional maturity, spiritual maturity, is the ability to delay pleasure. What did Harlow say this morning that was so good? It was something along those lines that people are able to deal with short-term pain for long-term vision. It's just he had a great way of saying it. I don't remember what it was, James, but

it's that same sentiment that, man, I have to make some choices to not be happy right this second so that I can really, really, truly have deep joy down the road. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but it yields a harvest of righteousness. And so nothing that we do that's good for the long, very few things that we do that's good for the long-term feels great at the present. And if all you do is work on the present, you're a child and all of your long-term starts to deteriorate right because you spend all your money on friday and saturday night and you go back monday morning you're broke again and you start to cycle over again that's thank god it's friday oh god it's monday that's the

opposite of having a vision and to jamal's credit he's moving away from that towards long-term thinking and the thing is jamal it needs to happen in every single compartment, department, area of your life. Yes, and feelings are a terrible GPS system. I did not feel like exercising this morning. I didn't feel like eating a healthy breakfast this morning. I didn't feel like going around and chasing my kids down so I could hug every one of them. I just wanted to put my headphones in and go to work. You do those things because they're right, and they have a long-term benefit, right?

Well, that's discipline. That's right. That's where it comes from. It comes from i'm willing to give up some pain now for gain later no pain no gain all that stuff right and it all falls together but this all works in every area of our lives and um you know you're going to see everything start to blossom the more that you do that your relationships um you're just going to be much more eligible on the dating scene by good women. Because good women don't want to hang with a guy who thinks, thank God it's Friday, oh God, it's Monday, and lives with his mom. That's not eligibility right there.

It's the opposite. And so you're moving in a great direction. And, I mean, you can get get girls but you can't get women and there's a different thing it's a whole different thing man so that it's a long-term thinking process and that's a beautiful thing where you are son i'm so happy to talk to you man call us anytime this This is The Ramsey Show. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. We're glad you are with us.

The best way to make the most of your money is by creating and sticking to a plan. Your plan. You decide what you want to put in it, and then you stick to the plan that you created isn't that cool so if it's punishing you you're punishing you if it's letting you off the hook you're letting you off the hook it's your plan you give every dollar of your income an assignment before the month begins and for those of you that are married you agree on it with your spouse every dollar the world's best budgeting app makes it simple to plan your spending track expenses save for what matters all in an easy to use app fits right into your busy lifestyle keep a pulse on your spending and make the progress on your money goals with every dollar you can download every

dollar for free in the app store or google play today you can also do it online at every dollar.com for your desktop check it out eric is with us in chicago hi eric welcome to the ramsey show hi dave thanks for taking my call um long time listener my dad uh listened to it when i was a child in the car and i just never stopped wow so my my question i 27, and I'm planning on going to anesthesia school. I'm currently an ICU nurse, and I'm married. And I'm trying to decide whether or not I should use the money that I've saved up or if I should use part of it and take out some loan because of the large expense of this school, similar to medical school.

Okay. If you take out the loan it doesn't change the expense not at none at all but i cannot work for three years or 36 straight months uh for this due to the 50 to 60 hours a week of clinicals and um and then schooling uh the classroom time so i but the way you propose the way you pose the question, it sounds like you've got the money to cover that. I currently have $133,000 in cash. As far as I can tell, most schools range between $100,000 and $130,000 for the 36 months. So what's your plan for eating?

Right. So I am married. My wife is a teacher um and then we have a uh a baby on the way here next month um she makes about 50 000 a year um i have we have no debt i was fortunate was able to graduate from nursing school with with no debt when do you start anesthesiology school so in june i'm on a wait list or it would be next year around this time okay so if you had another year to save you'd have a lot more that's correct um because i currently i we bought less house than we needed to our current take-home pays about 103 000 and

the mortgage is about 12 to 1300 with insurance okay. I would lay out a plan where we can live on her income and pay cash for this. Okay. Currently, the way I've got it, I use it every month, and I would use it to kind of project what it would be like, assuming her pay stays the same. It would be doable, but it would be kind of tight. Oh, well. You're getting an anesthesiology degree where you're going to make $300,000 um you know it would it would be doable but it would be kind of tight oh well because if i used you're getting an anesthesiology degree where you're gonna make three or four hundred thousand

dollars a year for the rest of your life oh darn you have to pay a price to do that oh darn the family's going to sacrifice for two two years to do that whoopee but but as far as like an emergency fund right now you're going to school man you're a freaking college student again okay no i'm not borrowing money to create an emergency fund sure no i'm not borrowing money to raise your little family's lifestyle while you bust it right no no you you you knew that before you called you've been listening to me since you were a kid. Yes. That's what I figured the case would be. I just didn't know.

I've been in stork mode the last several months. I want you to stay in stork mode. Listen, I've got to tell you, I think your career path is one of the best on the planet. It's one of the top five things people can do to make a pile of money, and it's very rewarding, rewarding too because what you're doing is excellent for the human race and uh because i you know i can tell you i have the pain tolerance of a three-year-old child i can't stand it so i need people that know what you're going to do around if i'm getting i don't want to feel nothing put me out and make, put me out in such a way that when I wake up, my brain still

works. So this is all I want from you, man. You're awesome. And I think you're going to make a lot of money. It's, it's better than an MD. I think I just, I love what you're doing, but just do it smart, Eric, pay cash for it. Okay. Set your family up in such a way that we're sacrificing for our future.

This is going to be a tough three years because you're going to be completely with your nose in the books and in the practicums and in everything else, and you're going to be absorbed in that, and you're going to have a new baby in the house in the process, and you're going to be living on a lot less than you're used to living on. It's going to be a very tough three years and it's going to be completely worth it. I mean, I can't recommend that more. And I'm sitting on the other side of this. Josephine was just born, my daughter.

I went back to grad school working for them. I mean, it was a madhouse. And there were days I didn't feel like it was worth it. And there was no easy path and man i'm glad we sacrificed and scratched and clawed right because you never know what's going to be but i do have friends who have medical debt medical school debt of some sort and they're stuck doing managed care 14 minutes and they tell me i would love to get out of this mad this madness but i can't afford to if you come out of anesthesiology school and you owe nobody anything man you're so you're the negotiation power you have for your next gig whatever you want you can write your ticket whatever you want but if you

got if you got stupid you know naviance staring down your neck you take what you get then you got to go oh i gotta take this gig because they're going to pay off Navient, you know, because that's a lot of the medical recruiters these days. They'll write you a little signing bonus or tied to your student loan debt. Right. And you don't need any of that. All I want is money. I just want you to pay me money and give me give me control of my life. And that's stuff you lose in the medical field if you're not careful.

So please pay cash. And I really would opt to start one year from June, not June. Yeah, there'd have to be a pretty compelling reason to start right this second. Yeah. And, you know, and set it up because that gives you a whole nother year of ICU earnings to pile. Keep your stork mode going, but it's a different birth. It's the birth of your future career, not your child. But just keep piling that money up, piling that money up.

Practice living on her income this year, piling up yours, and then you got the money. It's slam dunk. I'm seeing if there's a cohort that starts in January and split the difference, but I love the idea of – because obviously I get, like, you got a new baby and wanting to have some money in the bank. I get that.

But you're not having to write the whole 133 in the, in the bank. I get that. But, um, well, you're not having to write the whole 133 at once. That's it. That's it. You're going to be, you're not going to be down to the last nickel until you're at the end. That's right.

And so, you know, by then the whole thing's going to have shifted anyway, probably. Yep. So amazing. Good for you, brother.

Might even get a signing bonus sign before you do your last six months. And Hey, for people who call, I think this is an important thing. He has had a vision of this for several years, and he went into stork mode a long time ago. We get people who just have this thought, and they want to go do it all right this second.

He's been thinking about this for a while. He's got 130 grand piled up. Yeah. And so this is what this looks like. Yeah, this is the right way to do it. It's the right way to do it. Very, very well done. He's debt-free.

He's debt-free. He doesn't owe anybody anything. I want a doctor that doesn't owe anybody anything that can spend time with me and isn't worried about managing a clock but worried about keeping me safe and keeping me healthy that's what i want in my life i don't want to be a medical widget i don't even know what that is i don't want to be your inventory i don't want to be something that's managed by you i do not want to be a medical widget i know pastor said it was he said somewhere back in the 1960s or 70s we left the healing arts and went to the medical industry that's exactly right yeah we left the art and went to the the number crunchers but you don't owe anybody anything and you have all this knowledge and

the certifications you can sit down and help people and it's amazing yeah you got it i mean this is it's a golden ticket i love your love your path here it's a really really good path very well done eric proud of you man pay cash you knew dave ramsey was going to say that before you called it's about the only thing you can say about me that everyone has to say whether they like me or not i'm 100 freaking consistent and you're bald i probably shouldn't have said that that was i'm just trying to think of another thing that everyone can agree firm grasp on the obvious john deloney two phds and that's what they got you right there this is the Ramsey Show. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, is my co-host today.

Thank you for joining us, America. We're so glad you are here. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Thanks for hanging out. And, hey, guess what? On the debt-free stage in the lobby of ramsey solutions alan is with us hey alan how are you man hey great how are you guys doing better than we deserve where do you live oh i live in nowhere wisconsin but real close to madison okay yeah very cool drove like six six hundred miles down here to come be on the show so thanks for having me well we're

honored to have you sir thank you how much debt have you paid off? A little over 30 grand. 30,000 bucks. How long did that take you? About four years, give or take. All right, good. And your range of income during that time? When I started, I was at 45 grand and I'm currently around 55. Cool.

What kind of debt was the 30K? So I had 20 grand on high interest credit card and then I had another 10 grand on my car. Okay, cool. So what started this whole journey thing, this Ramsey thing four years ago? on high interest credit card and then I had another 10 grand on my car so okay cool so what started this whole journey thing this Ramsey thing four years ago well I mean well the journey started way before that just getting into debt I mean me and my ex-girlfriend at the time she talked me into getting a high interest credit card it was like if you spent three thousand dollars in the first three months you got all these points so we're like oh we'll put all our bills on that and I'll go on a vacation and then we didn't even we didn't even hit the three grand and we didn't even pay it off

so it was all downhill from there and then you know it just kind of snowballed um then once you know i was bottoming out and just super broke and just running out of ideas i was youtubing just how to get out of debt and you were one of the first ones that popped up so i started watching a couple of your videos that introduced me to the debt snowball and then uh from there then i got hooked i i was like that's digestible easy enough and then i grab it hold down all your stuff and then i found out about the debt avalanche i was able to do essentially the snowball and the avalanche i got real lucky where like my highest interest rates around my lowest principal amounts so i was able to just crush it but like it was a super humbling experience. I remember at the end, I was paying like five, 600 bucks a month towards the

credit card bills and the principals weren't even going down. Like it was heartbreaking. So like, you know, I ended up, I left my ex-girlfriend. She was no good at the time. I moved back in with my mom, which was horrible at your thirties. But you know, I was like, this is enough debt where it's going to follow me around my entire life if I don't do something about it. So yeah, I got real tough and I did something about it you know you were talking beans and rice I was beans or rice I couldn't afford beans and rice you know so like yeah so you know but it was great you know it took forever but like once you once I paid off the first little credit card then you see the progress you start feeling better about yourself and it just gets

better and better and a little easier and like and by the end once i'm throwing you know a thousand bucks a month at different things it just becomes a phenomenal feeling you feel like you're actually achieving your goals and like i mean last year i was able to max out my roth ira for the first time ever so i can start thinking about retirement which was not even a possibility before so you know i'm just incredibly grateful and it's all thanks to you guys so i appreciate it what do you do for a living man i manage a couple sushi restaurants so if you're ever in madison i mean we've won best sushi restaurant as in like seven years i was gonna say when i think sushi i think middle america yeah oh yeah exactly above all the lakes yeah but i mean we fly our fishing every day man we do it right i bet it's amazing it is yeah we do real well i had sushi for lunch

i can put a hurtin on a holiday ohage. Oh, dude, please. It'd be my treat. That'd be awesome. Yeah. Well, congratulations, brother. Dude, thank you, man. It was all thanks to you guys. I didn't do it. You did.

We didn't do anything, man. Well, if I didn't find you all, I don't even want to think where I'd be right now. So thank you. It means a ton to me. How's it feel to be free? Oh, it feels great, man. I can sleep so much better at night.

I bought a new set of tires a couple months ago, and I did it without crying. I couldn't have done that a couple years ago like it was wonderful tires and crying they always go together yeah right what was the hardest thing i mean you're manager of a restaurant people have expectations of what managers look like what they should be driving how they should be flashing money around what was the hardest thing you had to experience going going through this journey oh well it was a it was a complete lifestyle change because i mean in my 20s you know we'd go out drinking and partying all the hardest thing you had to experience going through this journey? Oh, well, it was a complete lifestyle change. Because, I mean, in my 20s, you know, we'd go out drinking and partying all the time. And, you know, like we were all broke, but we thought we were rich.

You know, and now it's – I heard a really good saying once where when you're young, you focus on your earn. And when you're old, you're focused on your burn. And that's completely true. Like once I hit my 30s, I was like – I didn't make noticeably more money or anything but i controlled where i was spending my money i stopped going out i stopped drinking stopped smoking cigarettes you know all these like massive you know inhibitors on my wealth and then now it just you know i'm reaping the rewards of that so it's great and you feel better you feel better oh dude i lost like 50 pounds yeah i look better even without the hair yeah you lost 50 pounds too yeah oh yeah dude i changed my whole freaking life

man it was nuts it was great wow yeah good for you oh thank you well done proud of you very cool all right what advice do you have to somebody who's listening we just went through a bad breakup with a bad girl and they got some bad debt to go with it uh what are you telling the key to getting out of debt is well i mean if i can do anyone can do it you know i'm not a college educated millionaire or anything like anyone can do it but it's going to be humbling you're not going to enjoy it it's going to be tough but you know if you make your mind up and like you decide you want to do it and commit to it you know then you can succeed it might take longer than you want but anybody can do it you just got to put the effort

out there like yeah and you're making 45 50 000 a year i mean you weren't making 300 000 exactly i did go back to school uh sorry last year so i mean yeah so like i'm making i like where i'm at right now and it's great for a single dude in his 30s but i'm not going to be wanting to necessarily be doing it in my 50s or 60s once i get a little older so i'm going to school to be an engineer so good for you wow hopefully it all works out that'll be a whole shift yeah man hold on let me get this straight you paid off debt in four years and in the process lost 50 lost 50 pounds i fixed my teeth too my teeth were messed up he actually lost about i don't know um 150

because he got rid of her too yeah right your hair too but you fix your teeth you're going to be an engineer you got a a significant raise against your salary, right? Yeah. You've changed everything, man. Yeah. Well, I wasn't happy with the guy in the mirror in my late 20s. I want you to talk on that. No.

Well, I mean, there was a lot of factors with that. I mean, when I was 22, I lost my father. I didn't have the tools to deal with that, so I became a pretty bad alcoholic. Sure. But, I mean, we were all in the restaurant industry. We just go out drinking every night. That was just normal commonplace.

So, you know, that just all snowballed with all the debt and just thinking that that was an acceptable lifestyle or sustainable. And it completely wasn't. What's it like to be well, man? Oh, like I said, do you sleep better? I'm happier than just weight off my shoulders. Like when I was in debt, it felt like you were drowning or suffocating constantly there was always you know like something minor like hey can we go out to dinner for our anniversary down the weekend like i was like i don't know if we can

budget that hundred bucks for that you know like it would just it'd be astronomically horrible but now it's like cool i could i just drove to nashville tennessee on a whim to be on the show and like i'm not sweating it at all and it's freaking wonderful so you know yeah it's just it's so night and day and you know it's just wonderful changed everything man that's amazing and then it's not rocket science it's just living within your means and then and having a goal like the big thing in my 20s i didn't have a goal or a plan now i do and i follow it and you're reaping those rewards yeah absolutely yeah it's not rocket science way to go hero congratulations proud of you man thanks for having me on excellent excellent work you're a sharp young dude now well done sometimes turned yourself into one very good good job man that's great transformation i love it i love it i love

it all right it's alan from madison wisconsin home of the world's best sushi thirty thousand dollars paid off in four years making 45 to 55 lost 50 pounds in the process changed his whole life that's the key right there so proud of you man count it down let's hear a debt-free scream one two three i'm debt-free Yeah! That's how it's done right there. That thing where he said it's not sustainable, that lifestyle is not sustainable, it flashed through my mind. I've got a new friend, a famous guy who's been off of cocaine for two years.

And I was just asking him the other day, I asking him i said man what how'd you decided i mean cocaine's tough it's a tough one it's a devil yeah it's and how do you break cocaine and he goes i just look up man he goes there are no old cocaine addicts good motivator it takes your soul man that's a good motivator yeah you know they're you know this partying every night this drinking's drinking and, you know, and calling it normal. It's not sustainable. Same thing, right?

Yeah. Same situation. There are no old people that do that, that have high quality lives. And so, you know, you just don't run into those. They're not out there. And I love, I love hearing when people decide to get their money right and they decide to get on a plan, they realize. This works for everything. Oh, my weight's like that, too.

My relationships are like that, too. And then he's looking down at 55-year-old self thinking, I want to be an engineer. I don't want to be running around restaurant to restaurant. That's amazing, man. It's amazing. Very cool. Very cool. This is The Ramsey Show. our scripture of the day proverbs 15 22 plans fail for lack of counsel but with many wise advisors they succeed brian tracy said failure is a prerequisite for great success if you want

to succeed faster double your rate of failure. That sounds painful. Tanner. Tanner's in Lexington. Hey, Tanner, how are you? Hey, I'm doing good, Mr. Ramsey. Good. How can we help? Yeah, so me and my wife, we're kind of at a financial crossroads,

some decisions coming up. So we bought a house in 2021, low interest rate. I'm sure there's people out here in this same situation. But we bought it with an unfinished basement. And over time, I've just been paying cash and finishing out the basement, and it's almost done, just got a couple more things to do. And we're looking at either selling the house and taking all the cash from the sale because we should make quite a bit of money on it and downsizing to a house that's coming up available next to my in-laws and paying cash for it and and paying off our debts and putting down a huge down payment but not quite

paying cash for the other house okay what's wrong with that yes uh well um so we have a car loan it's about uh eighteen thousand dollars and about fifty thousand in uh student loan debt. Okay. And would you rather us sell the house and pay off all of our debts and downsides to that house, or do you think we should rent this house and take our cash that we've saved up and buy that other house and use this property as a rental income to almost pay for the mortgage for the other house. So sometimes a good way to help you with the decision-making on that is to reverse engineer it. Let's pretend you were living in a house next to your in-laws and you were debt-free and it was almost paid off. Because that's one option, right?

Yes. Okay, let's pretend you're there. Would you go borrow more on the paid-for house, almost paid-for house, and go borrow $70,000 on cars and student loans to buy a rental house? No, you wouldn't. Yeah, no. Effectively, that's what you you're doing only i just did it in reverse okay by making the decision to not pay off the debt and not put down as much

on the other house it's as if you borrowed on those two things to buy the current house and make it a rental does that make sense yes it does okay which that tells me not to do it gotcha okay and i mean and another question is like would you recommend us staying in this house and just um staying here and then just paying off those debts or well that just has to do with how miserable a human being your in-laws are yeah i was gonna say what's the in-law tax? I have wonderful in-laws. They're great.

You know who says that? People with really scary in-laws. She's probably going to listen to this. I know. We're trying to get you in trouble. It sounds like the way you presented this, dude, it sounds like you want to move. And it sounds like you've put a lot of work into this thing. it's become a project and you're happy and you're proud of it. Kind of hate to let that go.

You don't want to let it go. But also, man, that money would be nice. It would really set you up and transform your life in one fell swoop. And I would say, think of it this way. Somebody said, hey, if you'll work six months and help me refinish out my basement, I'm going to pay off every debt you own and pretty much get you real close to paying off another mortgage closer to family. I'd take that side job. You would too, right? Good side job.

It's a great side job. So that's effectively what you've done. It's pretty amazing. Yeah. And got to live there too. So yeah, it's turned out to be a really good investment for you and a good use of your sweat equity to build out that garage that basement and add that square that finished square footage to the appraisal and so congratulations sir well played sell it be debt free and then have a plan to finish paying off the other little house as quick as you can

all right up next is travis in. Hi, Travis, how are you? Dave, a pleasure, Dr. J. Glad to be with you. Thanks. How can we help, sir? Yeah, so my kids are my second child. Last child is getting ready to graduate very soon, and my wife and I have been following baby steps, we'll say baby steps-ish, but we are in a good position. We've paid off a good amount of debt. Recently retired from the military, transitioned, made that transition. Now we're in a financial position where we weren't previously when they were going to school or we would have cash flowed their college.

Now we're in a position to help pay off their student debt. As they're exiting college, we want to do that, but we also want to stick to the baby steps, trying to figure out where that falls appropriately in the baby steps. So we're currently in baby step two, should be completely debt three in about the next 60 days based off our salary. And how much student loan debt would you be assisting with? I will be assisting total between the two kids approximately $65,000. Okay. And what's your household income?

Household income net is about $280,000, and that's just recent in the past two years since I've exited the service. Wow. Thank you for your service. I'm glad you're doing so well. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. So you can do this in a year? Yes, sir.

That's our plan. Yeah, in our current budget, I did indicate a little ish. Spousal participation has been open, and communication has been good. Not fully gazelle intense, but definitely moving in the direction of being debt-free, like I said. I like the idea of you guys putting your oxygen mask on first and being debt-free in 60 days and then deciding we're going to save up and bless and surprise our kids. Okay. That makes the most sense to me.

I wasn't sure, does it fall after we start contributing our emergency fund. It depends on whether you want to call it. It's technically not your debt. Right. So technically this is a charitable gift. Correct, yeah. And we want to honor that change in our generation. We didn't have that opportunity, which is why we even had debt,

the student loan debt. That's not true. We just didn't have that opportunity. That's not true. That's part of the it's part of the equation but um you know you you do not have any moral obligation here unless you made one to your kid unless you promised your kid you'd help them pay it but if you did not okay then this is a gift yes sir and it's not a and it's not a guilt trip and and it's not and you're not morally obligated to do this. So it's a charitable thing you're doing for your children.

There's nothing wrong with that. That's okay. But if you're going to do that, then you place it out there after baby step four, you know, four, five, six while you're working on that. You get your emergency fund in place. You're out of debt. And then we save up and just write a major check for christmas one year like john like john was saying i think that's a plan if you if you had said i promised to help

you pay this when you graduate then now we've it's not a legal contract but it's a moral obligation i would put it in your debt snowball then in that case no they were they were fully aware. We coached on the options of going to school, what that looked like to go to school debt-free. They did have that option because we get to them two years of my military benefits for education. Yeah, and they chose to go to schools they couldn't afford. Correct. Yeah.

Yeah. Please do not put your family in further financial jeopardy because you feel guilty. In fact, I would love, as a guy who's worked with college students for most of my career, I would love for you to sit down with your kids. The surprise would be really fun.

That'd be cool. But I'd love for you to sit down and say, I want to see you follow a budget and follow a plan, follow FPU for one year after you get your job. I want to see where you are, and I'm going to be willing to, if you meet X criteria, I'm to see where you are, and I'm going to be willing to. If you meet X criteria, I'm going to write you a check and pay off your student loans.

Yeah. And they have some skin in the game, and I like that investment in their future adulthood, but not this guilt thing, man. Colleges take advantage of. Another generation, you know, like we have some kind of generational reparation. No, you got guilt. You feel guilty like we have some kind of generational reparation.

You got guilt. You feel guilty that your kids have went to school and you couldn't afford it. And now that you make a bunch of money, you feel like you owe them. You don't, you don't. They could have gone to somewhere and not have student loan debt. They made choices too. So they're in this too. So yeah, that's the thing, but it's good. It's very nice.

You're charitable dad. You're in great shape. You're making great money. So yeah, put yourself in a position. You can do something along those lines. That'd be my plan. Good question. That puts us out of the Ramsey show in great shape. You're making great money. So, yeah, put yourself in a position you can do something along those lines. That would be my plan. Good question. That puts us out of the Ramsey Show and the books.

We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace, and that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus. Thank you. We'll see you next time.