The Ramsey Show - App - Sell the Stupid Cars Today! (Hour 2)

Episode Date: October 31, 2023

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. Jade Walsh, our Ramsey personality, is my co-host today. The phone number is 888-825-5225. Justin is in Houston, Texas. Hi, Justin. How are you?

Good afternoon, Dave. Good afternoon, Jade. Are y'all doing good today? We're great. How can we help? Well, I'm calling today about my cousin, Brandy. When you're an only child, your cousins are like your de facto siblings. And my cousin Brandy is only literally three weeks younger than me.

So we often joke that we're the closest things our families have to twins. We grew up very close, and she has two kids right now, a 13-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter. About two years ago. Um, her son, Brandon wanted to start making his own money cause they live pretty poor. They, he only makes about 18 or 19 K a year and he wanted some money cause he wants to go. He's a,

he's a Astros fan. He wants to go to games. He wants a Jersey and he wants to work and make his own money. And he bought him. He actually hand wrote letters and there's this neighborhood next to the apartment they live in. He went around distributing these hand-written letters. Hey, I'll mow your lawn for $40. Give me a call.

And he started getting calls. He borrowed my lawnmower for a while, started making his own money. He bought his own and even looked up YouTube videos on how to take care of it, how to oil it and take care of the blades. And I was so proud of him, so proud of him for taking this initiative. Cool. Well, a little while later, the money he had in his drawer from working his mom took it saying well no what do you mean i didn't know you had this much money we got bills to pay and and about and so much so he started hiding what he was making about a year about a year ago he actually had enough saved to buy a riding lawnmower he bought

it from a pawn shop for about 900 and again i'm thrilled with him he's looking up youtube videos taking care of it how to maintain it and he brought my flatbed trailer just so we could keep it at the house so that way whenever he had a client i would help him out on the weekends i would just go over there hook and book and so mom is going in there mom is going in there and taking his hard-earned 10 15 bucks i'm afraid it's worse than that jade how much is he making about it doesn't matter it doesn't matter the fact that she's about six weeks ago he came home from school and the mower's gone she sold it saying that quote we needed to pay bills um she sold her five hundred dollars and then so she's making she's making like you said

18 or 19 000 a year is that what you said yes what's why do you know he's devastated she works as a hotel desk clerk but it's not at a hotel. It's like one of these mom and pop things. Sure. And at this point, whenever he comes home, his mower's gone. He's crushed. He's devastated. I go over there because I'm that close to them. I care about them.

I want to find out what's going on. All she tells me is that we need to pay bills. I need $500. So, sorry, I hadn't told him. And she's unapologetic about it. And at this point, he's crying right there. His eyes are like cherries. He's devastated.

He just stands up, walks to her and says, I can't be your son because you're not a mother right now. You're a monster. And stormed off. He might have thrown in a four-letter word or two, which I'm not just saying on the radio. And at this point, I'm just saying. So you're standing there witnessing all this to this lady who's like your sister.

And you said what to her at this point, I was trying to say, why would you steal from them? What are you doing? And she said two things. One, you can't steal from your kid. Everything that is his mind.

I needed to do something. That's what was available. I had to do what I had to do. And then the second of all was, and I swear, this is a very small defense for her. That is how we were raised. That's how our moms raised us.

And that's how our grandmother raised them was whenever you start working, you pitch in. And there's no age requirement. When I got my first job at 15, the first thing my mom wanted to know was, okay, when are you getting paid? We got this bill to pay. And we were taught not to question it. So really, I don't know what to tell them. I don't know what the, quote, Ramsey solution is on kids working, trying to earn their own money.

Should they pitch in, or is the money theirs? I'm just, I'm a lot of words, because I don't have kids myself. I'm a little, I don't really know what to tell her at this point. I care more about their relationship. I don't think she cares what you think. Yeah, I don't think she does either tell her at this point. I care more about their relationship. I don't think she cares what you think. Yeah, I don't think she does either. And I know she doesn't care what I think. I mean, what she's.

Part of her, I think she blames me for this part. Because she thinks I'm instilling ideas in his head that he doesn't have to pitch in. That he gets to keep all the money. Well, like, what she's saying is, like, this has been a generational thing. This is the way she's been raised. This is the way you've been raised this way you've been raised your grandparents have been raised and she thinks it sounds like she thinks that this is right and like dave said i don't think she cares what you think um at all like she thinks that this is

the best way to go uh obviously i can look at the situation and see many, many things wrong with it. A, she's not earning enough money. It sounds like an able-bodied, healthy woman who could go out and earn more than $18,000 or $19,000 a year. So it sounds like she needs to apply herself. She could earn double this next week. Yeah. Yeah. Working 40 hours at Target, she could earn more.

Yeah. So, I mean, run over to Walmart. They're paying $20 an hour. It's a lot more than she's making now. And she could work 60 hours a week before I take money from my own kid. So she has character issues. You can blame it on your family tree if you want to, but just because misbehavior is part of your family heritage

doesn't mean that it's a good thing. It doesn't make it okay's a good thing that doesn't make it okay if anything i think it would make you want to do better and do differently for your kids i mean there's a lot of a lot of most of us have something somewhere in our family history that we absolutely don't want repeated yeah down down the family tree right? So that's a character flaw, including stealing from a 13-year-old. Now, if you want to go down the path she's going down philosophically, you can go down that path, but it requires more courage than being a thief. It requires just sitting down with a 13-year-old and go,

hey, we don't have much money. We want you to pitch in. And so if we can, you you know some of the money you make you ought to pitch in here in the family and demand that of him you could do that but that's different than stealing out of his underwear drawer or selling his lawnmower when he's not home that's cowardly she did that because she knows she's wrong i'd probably bring that up if it were if it were my brother or sister, I'm really trying to put myself in your shoes. If it were my brother or sister and I saw that, I think that I would

approach it in that way. Like what Dave said, I'd say, look, if you need help around the family, which by the way, you shouldn't, but if you did, why can't you be a grown adult and model what a grown adult conversation would be like and say to him, hey, this month is tight. Would you mind helping out? Or I need you to help out. Or I'm going to make you help out. But at least do that to his face instead of just scarfing his stuff up, number one. But before all that, what would I do if I were in your shoes, Justin?

It sounds like you have a fairly close relationship to her, and it sounds like she's off base. And so you need to take her to coffee and say, like she has uh she she's off base and so you need to take her to coffee and say all right sis here's what's going on you don't make enough money your job sucks and you don't work much you need to work more and you need to get a better job so you don't have to steal from your own kid and i'll help you do that i'll coach you along sis i'll help you get into financial peace university i'll help you get on a budget i'll help you start acting like an adult so you're as an adult not dependent upon a 13 year old to quote pay bills you ought to be ashamed of yourself putting your family in that position when you're able-bodied and can make enough

to take care of your family instead of scarfing from your family and so that's me and her having a conversation at coffee but there's nothing that requires her to do that in the law and you can't make people do smart stuff if you could i'd have been out of business a long time ago halloween bump music huh all right the booth dudes ladies and gentlemen bringing you what's known as production values open phones at 888-825-5225 laura is with us in west palm beach florida hey laura what's up hi uh i was actually calling because I'm wondering if there's any benefit in taking out a student loan, going back to finish to get my bachelor's degree and increase the money that I'm making, or if that's a poor decision to take on more debt. I think it's a poor decision to take on more debt. There might be benefit in going back to school and finding a way to pay to go back to school, but I don't think that there would be a benefit in taking out student loans in order to do so. What's your bachelor's you're studying? I was. I took a break, and I haven't gone back in years, but it was for communications.

Okay, and how's that going to increase your income? I mean, most of the jobs that I see are all they want your bachelor's and it's been very hard to get a job um which i've managed to do but i'm not really enjoying it um and it doesn't really pay a whole lot listen that's an absolute mythology that's just not true okay the idea that you get a generalized degree, like a communications degree, and it automatically qualifies you to make more money is absolutely not true, okay? And you know how I know that? I've got 1,000 people working in this building in a white-collar setting.

I've got everything from computer programmers, web designers, creatives, production people. I've got lots of people in the communications field. computer programmers, web designers, creatives, production people. I've got lots of people in the communications field. I can't tell you a single one off the top of my head that I pay money to, I'm their boss, that I know what their degree is. I don't know if Jade has a degree. No one has ever asked me for my degree, ever, ever. Wow.

Okay. So what happened was somehow they got into an interview and convinced us at Ramsey that they could do the job. And then they got in the building and they actually did the job. The degree was irrelevant. The knowledge to do the job would be relevant. But the actual degree keeping someone from getting a great paying job lots of people in this building make incredible money and i couldn't tell you a single one of them's degree actually i take that back i have a on staff council that is

our our staff attorney i do know that he has a law degree yeah that one I do know and I actually know where his law degree is from oddly enough but uh but I couldn't tell you the other lawyers that we've hired where they went to school even so um where you went to school or the fact that you have a degree in in most fields today does not hold you back. What does hold you back is connectivity to the subject at hand, like what is it you want to work in, do you know enough about it, do you have enough knowledge base, and connectivity to the people in that building or in that organization that you want to be a part of that lets you have a chance to go prove yourself.

But this idea that there's some kind of vague veil out there that only the people with degrees get behind the veil, that's old-fashioned mythology. And the last time that was true was probably 20 years ago. What's the sort of job that you're trying to get, Laura? Right now, I mean, I'm a writer. I'm in marketing. But I just feel like, you know, I make 50K a Right now, I mean, I'm a writer. I'm in marketing, but I just feel like,

you know, I make 50k a year now, and I just feel like, you know, I'm going to be stuck in this, you know, in that pay range. I don't feel like there's much, unless I hop jobs. Are you any good? Are you good at what you do? Are you been doing are you good at it you are yes okay yes are you doing something to get better at it yes what what are you doing um i'm getting certifications online actively researching with new in the industry to me that's more valuable that's way more valuable than going back to school. Graduates with a degree in communication that come out or a degree in journalism that come out that want to write very seldom make 50K out of the gate. Very few of them first job out make 50K right now. Communication's degree and journalism's degree just don't pay that much.

Journalism's worse. worse right it's absolutely horrid i almost wonder if the better route for her it sounds like with what she does there's probably freelance work that she could do if she wanted to really quickly raise her income well what i would do is also start putting some people around you that are better than you are yeah that's true and start meeting with them and brainstorming and increasing your skill set in writing and marketing are you doing copywriting that's one type of marketing or are you know writing ad copy or something that you know that's a skill that's a unique skill set that's very valuable yeah because when you can do that well it creates an instant roi for the people you wrote the ad for and then you go oh she's a studly copywriter i need her writing this

or is she writing digital narratives for marketing campaigns? What is it? What is it? What is it? Because just a content person, today there's so much content out there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And good quality content delivered in a way that actually communicates

is not a skill set that you get from a four-year communications degree. It's a skill set you get from writing a lot with other high-quality, world-class writers looking over your work and questioning you and measuring the results of your work. And so I'll give you an example. We're editing a book of mine right now, the old Total Money Makeover book, sold 10 million copies. We're working on it. They haven't, the old Total Money Makeover book, sold 10 million copies. We're working on it.

They haven't done a new issue of it in like a decade. We're going to do a new issue in the spring. So we're going through the stupid thing with a fine-tooth comb, looking at every detail and every statistic that's in there that's outdated. And some of the examples we have from 15 years ago, home price examples are humorous you know they're hilarious so we're going through and changing all that so I'm not personally doing I read through it this weekend I read through the work that our writers have done but the quality of their writing we could tell by how much correction I sent back wow Wow. You know? Yeah. And so how valuable is that young guy that's doing, Nick is doing that writing, and they're pretty dadgum valuable

because I didn't find a lot wrong with his. His math was excellent. That's excellent, yeah. And his ability to grasp what we were trying to say and saying it better in a new world. Just modernizing it. You know, it was excellent. I mean, there's probably 800 entries in there or something

like that of changes and and i probably didn't touch 100 of them that's pretty good that is pretty good you know i mean that's that that's exactly what you learn to do i mean that's that's your world they don't teach you how to do that that's what i'm saying if she were to go back to school what she learns is already going to be outdated like she's going to learn more getting in there like you said getting around people who are better than her, analyzing people's work that's better than hers. Former writer's coffee group that meets for a Bible study or for a writer's coffee group on Wednesday mornings before work,

and you all sit and judge each other's writing and up each other's game. Songwriters do it in Nashville all the time. Oh, yeah. The number of people that write a hit song by themselves is unusual it's very it's always a group it's almost always i've got a buddy around i sat down and i had this hook and he added this lyric yeah and that melody shifted and i've heard that story from songwriters in nashville thousands and thousands of times over the years and and it's all there was was they good got in a room and

made each other better. Yeah. Or if she starts freelancing, that'll tell her quickly because people aren't afraid to give you that feedback. Or if she's having trouble getting work, that would also indicate. Laura, all of this is not to correct you. It is to encourage you. You don't need to spend a dime on a four-year degree.

I wouldn't. I would spend a ton of effort in getting better. I agree. All of you out there there the knowledge currency is what's important knowledge is the currency that gets you in the door keeps you in the door and moves you up the ladder knowledge so how do you move how do you get in the door move up the ladder you get more and more knowledge so you're always adding knowledge you're always adding tools to your belt the rest of your life if the last time you read a non-fiction book was when you were in school you're failing you're destined for mediocrity read a non-fiction book particularly in your area of expertise for

god's sakes you don't lean in learn lean in. Learn something new. Learn something new. Hey, when I started Ramsey, they hadn't invented the Internet yet. If I had learned something new, most of you 20 million people wouldn't even be out there right now. You have to learn something new all the time. Every day, every week, every year. You've got to get better. You're the answer. Knowledge is the currency, boys and girls, not degrees.

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All right. Today's question comes from Addie in Oklahoma. She says, I'm writing because I have a bit of doubt about this situation. My mom wants to be a cosigner for me to be able to buy a property through an FHA loan since I will be a first-time home buyer. I will be living in the property, but it will be divided and the since I will be a first-time home buyer. I will be living in the property, but it will be divided and the other side will be rented. I was pre-approved for $325,000. My mom and the realtor we are working with are telling me that we have to put offers on

properties at full asking price, but I'm concerned about this. I'm 23 years old. I only make $36,000 a year as a medical assistant and currently owe $10,000 on student loans. Should I wait before I make such a big investment? Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Okay. Let's look at some red red flags here um number one you make thirty six thousand dollars thirty six thousand dollars a year that's quite low it's half of the national average yeah that's that's quite quite low and you're wanting to buy a quarter of a million dollar house over a quarter million dollar house three hundred twenty five thousand dollars the reason you feel nervous and the reason that you feel like you can't breathe because it's literally like John Delaney would say, it's your body telling you there's something wrong. And when there's something wrong, don't ignore it.

Let's look at what's wrong. And you can see what's what the problem is here. You understand that the only way that you're getting this loan is your mom would be signing for it. That means if you can't get a loan on your own, it means that all of the loan companies know this is a bad idea. You can't pay. And the only way that we mitigate some of this risk is we bring on someone who we think might be able to pay when you won't be able to make the payment. And in that case, this would be your mother. And she probably thinks that she's being sweet for saying, oh, I'll sign for you.

I want you to have this home. But it's a horrible idea because you know and I know that you're not making a lot of money. You still have debt. And the chances of you not being able to make this payment is high, not to mention there's the renting side about this. It sounds like you are both dependent on a renter to live on the other side in order to make this payment, which again is creating a lot of risk. Yeah, this is a mess, Addie. Don't do it. This is a mess.

And let's add one more element to this. It's okay. You're going to be a homeowner. Yeah, you're 23. It's okay. You're going to be a homeowner. Yeah. You're 23. It's okay. You're going to make it. Okay. But your mom has been controlling this entire conversation.

Yeah. And maybe it's time that you just said, Mom, you know, I love you, and I'm just not going to do this right now. And that's going to do a lot of things for you and your mom. One is she's not going to get to control you with the purchase she and the realtor are telling you what to do do you not hear that it was very clear in the language that you used you're you're being treated like a little girl like your mom's pretty she may mean well but she's pretty stinking controlling here and she loves the fact she needs to co-sign she loves the fact that you are dependent

upon her because now she gets to tell you what to do even more so you need to break free of mommy mommy needs to be a grown-up and addy needs to be a grown-up yeah because what happens separated from mommy and enjoy mommy as a peer not as a controlling mother of a 23 year old treating you like she like you're 13 you're not making a decision in this entire thing every one of these decisions are being made by someone else and pushed upon you you need to stiff arm this back step back breathe get you a nice little apartment and a great life and let all those people go do their little lives and then when you get ready to buy a house you'll be in a position to buy a house yeah because only only two scenarios come of this if she went it's bad it's all bad if she doesn't make that payment

a her mom's lording it over her i said she's her mom's her mom's gonna tell her when she can take vacation because she goes on the line i'm telling you. I smell control freak a mile away, and I've got a good nose for it. Courtney's in Oklahoma City. Hey, Courtney, what's up? Hey, Dave. Hey, Jade. How are you guys doing? Better than we deserve.

How can we help? So, first of all, Jade, I'm a huge fan. I've seen your debt-free scream about 100 times. It's fascinating to me. That's awesome. It's awesome. It is awesome. I am, I am, I've been married for 12 years.

My husband and I have three kids. We have almost $100,000 in total debt. And we're on baby step two. And when we pay off these small cards, you know, that's great. That's a great morale booster, I would say. It's easy, instant satisfaction. And we have some bigger balances that are coming up that I know are not going to have that instant gratification. So what I'm asking is, how can I keep morale and encouragement with my husband and I in between as we come into these larger balances that we know are going to take longer and there's not going to be some instant gratification there. Yeah. What are the

biggest balances that you have? We have two $20,000 cards and one $20,000 student loan debt. Okay. That's not as bad as I thought you were going to say. What's your income? We make collectively almost $ 95 000 a year and um at this point how much are what like what's your margin going to the debt snowball every month we can maybe put an extra 150 he's working two jobs wait a second did you say 150 what dollars no girl 95 000 you shouldn't have told me that that's that's not intense that's not intense at all well no wonder you're worried about these 20 000 balances because that's going to take forever yeah i think it's it's it helps more when they're the smaller cards because

the smaller cards get paid off well yeah it helps more because you're the smaller cards because the smaller cards get paid off. Well, yeah. Well, it helps more because you're not paying anything on them. Right. I mean, if you've got a $150 card, it works real good. Pay $150. But it doesn't work real good when you've got $20,000. You've got to put $2,000, not $150. So he's actually active duty military.

He's an officer. We've had about almost our entire marriage in active duty military. Okay. And he actually did the Green to Gold program so that he could become an officer. We've had about almost our entire marriage in active duty military. Okay. And he actually did the Green to Gold program so that he could become an officer. He was enlisted. That obviously comes with more income. Okay. And he gets promoted next week, so that's a significant more income.

Honey, he makes 95 now, and you're only putting 150. Why? Where's all your freaking money going? Debt that I accumulated from my parents. No, you haven't. You already told us the debt. Okay. Yeah paying how much are you paying to your parents oh i'm not i that's they took things out of my social security number well why would you pay it that's called fraud correct you're correct why would you pay it you don't need to pay that

file a police report and tell the police you know where the criminal is i'm not kidding at all yeah right who steals from their own kid that's a great question what's the amount of people that go to jail that's who it is yeah what's the amount of that um it wasn't that wasn't very much but it was,000 of that. Okay, so let's just stop a second. Let me go back. You sidetracked me there with that ridiculous story of your crazy parents. But the deal is still this. You've got $95,000 coming in.

That is not all going to $10,000 worth of debt that your parents took out in your name. Where the flip is all your money going? My car payments and other other how much is your car payment uh mine's 700 okay what's the other car payment his is 950 okay there's all the stupid cars today those are completely asinine who has dollars worth of car payments and calls with the financial trouble i mean you sell your cars do you see how much quicker you would pay off your debt if you had that extra seventeen hundred dollars freed up sixteen hundred and fifty dollars freed up you are car poor have you got a ford tattoo your forehead? Do they own you?

You should get one. They own you. Wow. And a Chevrolet tattoo on the other arm or whatever it is. Oh, my God. $900 and $700. We found your problem, Courtney. My goodness.

It is cars. You guys got car disease. They sure do. Austin, we make sure they get every dollar. Amputate the Tahoe. Shoot. This is the Ramsey Show. Jade Walsh, all Ramsey personality, is my co-host today.

Donnie is in St. Louis. Hi, Donnie. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, guys. I'm privileged to talk to you guys. Sorry, I'm a little nervous. I'll give you the rundown here just in case you need all this information. I'm going to be 47 next month.

My wife and I recently married. We've been together for three years. We each have three kids from a previous marriage, so six kids total. We are both debt-free. We are fully funded emergency fund. Right now, I'm only contributing the bare minimum 6% to my retirement to get the match because we want to save for a house. The house we're living in is from her previous marriage, and it has more problems than you could shake a stick at.

It's probably going to be one of those as-is sell houses to cut that short. So when the kids are growing on in eight years, we want to move, get a house that's ours. Why don't you move before then no uh why don't you move now well because we don't know if we would stay in illinois or if we would go to missouri um it just kind of depends um we have relatives that may or may not be here at that time also that would i know but that's eight years why would you stay in a house you hate for eight years well we don, we don't hate this house. We don't hate it. It's got more problems than you can shake a stick at.

I thought I heard some guy say that. Yeah. If you sold it, would it bring anything, or it would just be a break-even? Still low on it. Still about 70 on it. What would it bring as is right now? As not right now, it might just break even okay okay so you get out of it and then you would so if you saved up a down payment in the next year

or so i would move okay i don't want to stay in a place that's not fun for eight years no not for eight years no i don't want to do that move into something that's fun even if it's even if it's just around the corner and it's just not broken. I agree. Well, I mean, there's things that need to be updated on it, like the electrical and the plumbing. I thought you were going to sell it as is.

Well, that's what I'm saying is wrong with it. It's livable. It's not like we don't hate it like we want to get out tomorrow if we could okay how can we how can we help you like the new day um well the reason my question is um the reason i put all that in there um so i just started saving for retirement last year because both of us were in previous relationships that it was you know you had the the other spouse you were dragging along trying to do the day plan and they didn't want to do it kind of thing. But luckily we both found each other and we're both on board with the day plan.

So the root of my question is, is for saving for a house, I know you've said if you are going to be saving for more than five years or more to do an S&P 500. And I didn't know if that's still the case because of how bad the market was this past year. The market was not bad the past year. Since January 1, the S&P would have made you 9.5%. Right. That's not bad. Well, I mean, my retirement has been bad this past year. I'm like down 7%.

I don't know what you're invested in. Compared to, well, it's on Fidelity, and it's also the top as far as life average return and 10 years average return percentages for small, mid, international, and large cap in 2015. I don't know what your mix is that caused you to lose money in this calendar year. You shouldn't have lost money in this calendar year. You should have made money. Now, you've lost money since July. It's gone down.

The market's down since July, but since January 1, it's up 9.5%. Okay. It was about even all year until the last couple months. Yeah, the last couple months are horrible. In the last couple months, it went down. Yeah. But, yeah, that's the only thing I've personally been able to see, and I see it every week because I constantly get paid weekly,

so I keep track of what I contribute versus how much it's worth. But my point is that you're making an absolute statement about the market that is absolutely incorrect because of the way you're watching it. And so based on that, you were getting ready to do the wrong thing. Now, if you want to leave the money alone for three or four years, the S&P will be fine. If you'd left it alone since January 1 to now, you would have made almost 10% on your money, even though since July the market is down. And so I've got money parked in an S&P, but I can afford the up and the down. Even if you lost some money, it's not the end of the world in your whole scenario here. So if you want to use the S&P, as long as you can handle it, that's fine.

But the way your brain's working on the market i'm not sure you should do it you should just put it in a high yield savings account and i want to call out if you're planning to have this money or save for the next five or whatever years if you're planning to do your plan i would not stay at six percent on your investing for that long by the way at some point maybe after year two i'd kick it up to 15 and save up for your down payment a little slower because I don't want you only doing 6% for the next five to eight years. And by the way, I just pulled it up for the fun of it. The S&P for the past five years is up 53.91%. So that would be almost 11% a year. Love it.

Okay. For five years. That's the average for five years. So the last five as of today. So, you know, but since July this year, the market is down. Sure. And because what we're seeing, we're seeing the high interest rates under the Biden Fed. They're driving the housing market to a screeching halt, and it's affecting a whole bunch of other things. Retailers are really freaking out about Christmas. They're starting to worry that it's going to be a really slow Christmas.

A lot of people barking about recession, but I don't know. We'll see. We're in an election year, coming up on into an election year, so we'll see how this plays out. All people spend all that to say donnie uh you have a perception of the market that is based on last week's paycheck so if that's how you're going to measure it you should not put money into an s&p no because you mess around and high yield savings account and then get your baby step four back up to 15 as jade said um because you're not doing this short term you don't want to be out of 15% in Baby Step 4 for longer than two and a half, three years.

And what you're describing here is eight years. And so you need to be fully invested into good mutual funds in your retirement. Do you think he was trying to save up and pay full out cash for a house? I don't know. Because I'm like an eight-year plan. That's aggressive. I don't know um they've done really well uh but the that old house represents a bunch of stuff i don't like personally ruth is in macon georgia hi ruth how can we help hi dude hi jade um the reason i'm calling in is because my husband and i've been on baby step two

um not as intensive we should have been. We're kind of starting to pick it up, but I'm due with a baby in six weeks. And y'all have always said to, you know, when you get to that point, pump the brakes and just save up. Yeah. So that's what we're doing now. But, you know, come January, after she's born, barring any complications, we'll start back intense again. Oh, intense for the first time. Well, yeah, intense for the first time well yeah intense for the first

time okay we still had a reduction this year it just wasn't where it should have been yeah anyway so um my question is i owe about 22 000 left on my car um so it's at about the point where i could trade it in for about 25 right now000 right now or sell it for around $30,000. Or by the time we pay it off and if we stick to the snowball schedule, I've ran all the numbers multiple times, it always comes out to April of 2025. Sell it. Yeah. Sell it and buy a $7,000 car.

Yeah. Yeah, because we're at the point where it's like, you know, we want something that's dependable. $7,000 cars are dependable what about your husband's car um he has a truck but it's almost paid off um i want something that's dependable as code for i don't like the car all these cars are dependable seven thousand dollar cars are dependable there's nothing wrong with a seven7,000 car. If you pick the right car, you have it checked out mechanically. You don't buy a piece of junk, you know,

because you just like the way it looked or something. But, I mean, actually check out the mechanical background. There's lots of really good cars for $7,000. Really nice cars. And so, yeah, I would sell that puppy and be out of debt. There's no way i'm fighting with this stupid vehicle for three years no way no chance no fun at all in that scenario ruth so yeah baby comes i'd be selling that car and uh don't you ever say i need something

dependable again it's just not true this is the ramsey show