The Ramsey Show - App - Should Bill Payments Come Out of A Separate Checking Account? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: November 13, 2018

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Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Dave Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Well, ever so often, something happens that lets me know that I have a long career ahead of me. That there will always be room for this show and our advice. We posted a simple little thing on Facebook this morning that I've said a thousand times and on Instagram. And some of you have gone absolutely ape. You have lost your ever-loving minds.

Parents, this was the post, don't encourage your kids to take out student loans. Encourage them to make plans to go to a school where cash can be paid for college. Academics are important, but they do not cause you to be successful. We all know highly educated broke people. Now, that's a fairly consistent Dave Ramsey message. That is not new information to the universe. But I got to tell you, some of you, when you are on social media, lose your minds.

Some of the meanest people on the planet seem to hang out at Facebook. And a few of them on Instagram and the rest of them are on Twitter. Oh, my gosh, y'all. Calm yourself. Chill your little self down. I've been called names. I've been harassed. The only thing I'm sure of is a couple of death threats,

and that'll probably happen by the end of the day. Because I dared to say that you can go to college without debt. I'm out of touch. I don't know anything about the real world. Oh, and my favorite is, you know, listen, I understand if you don't have hope, how you feel trapped. I understand that. But you need to guard your tongue and you need to guard your spirit because when you get crazy like this, it makes you look stupid.

So, I mean, who can seriously afford to pay cash at 17 or 18 years old? Sarcasm, sarcasm, sarcasm. You know, and it just, I mean, it's just, I don't want to read them all, but my favorite was, not every, this is what you always throw out, especially liberals, right? Not everyone is born with privilege to be able to pay for their college education. There are ways to do it cheaper cheaper but this is a very privileged mindset darling the only privilege i have is the privilege of having common sense and the ability to do

mathematics that's the privilege that i have it is not a privileged mindset it is a mathematical freaking fact but man you guys are going nuts of you, because I dared to say that you should not be part of the $1.5 trillion student loan debacle and that you can become educated without going into debt, you people are angry. Some of you people are really nuts. So let's just do a little basic math, okay? Just a little basic math.

Here's the actual statistical facts today. Not that I'm out of touch. Not that I don't know how the real world works. You ought to come out here and visit us, little people. Oh, bless your stupid butt little hearts. Some of you are absolute buttholes, man. Seriously, pull your head out of your butt and do some math. This is really not that hard.

Here's the deal. The average state university annual tuition in America today in state tuition today is $9,500 a year. The

average person delivering pizzas five nights a week in america today makes fifteen hundred dollars a month at their night job lots of my uber drivers as I get in their cars across America, are making $1,500 to $2,000 a month as their side hustle doing Uber. Some of them, it's their full-time gig. So let's do a little math, okay? Let me help you with this, because some of you, the sixth grade was education, higher education for you, apparently.

$9,500 versus $1,500 a month. $1,500 a month is $18,000 a year. Can you pay $9,000 if you have $18,000? Is this hard for you? Can you pay $ pay nine thousand if you have eighteen thousand yes can you find if listen you should not be in college if you cannot successfully deliver a pizza you should not be in college if you can't successfully drive for Uber. That is not privilege, stupid butt woman. That is mathematical facts.

Now, can you live at home and drive pizzas and have enough to pay your tuition and your books? Easily. Times two. But you have to work while you're in school and you're not doing minimum wage flopper whopping jobs if you're going to flop whoppers you probably can't pull this off you actually have to use your brain you can make 25 an hour cleaning people's toilets get you a leaf blower rich people are are afraid of leaves. They will pay you serious money.

Kid knocked on my front door a couple years ago, had a pressure washer in tow, wanted to pressure wash my driveway and seal it. He walked away with $1,500 a day later. Now, he had some cost of goods sold and a little bit of equipment invested. In a day. One day. You know why I gave him the job? He's knocking knocking on the door i'm trying to play cash for college all right i didn't need my driveway sealed but i want it sealed after he did that just seal it buddy i'm doing it we're doing this yeah you can pressure wash you can wash

people's dogs you can walk people's dogs you can clean people's toilets you can drive for uber and you can work your way through a state school while living at home or you could actually live in the dorm and do that because you got another nine or ten thousand dollars to work with here in a year but you are working instead of playing beer pong in your off hours when you're not in class you're working well i'm afraid my gpa will go down your gpa goes down more from beer pong than it does from working you can't hang out at the frat house all the time where i can't have the college experience we're not talking about the college experience doofus we're talking about an education

here getting an education a four-year degree in four freaking years. You can go to community college for less than that your first two years. In the state of Tennessee, community college is free. There's a couple other states it is, and it's dadgum near free in a lot of other states. Get your first two years out of the way for half of that or less. You can even go to a private university, which is $34,700 a year, but now you've got to start making some real money. College choice and being willing to work at a job that is not minimum wage, that is not your life goal, so you can make some money, is how you go to college debt-free. So, before you draw out your sarcasm, mean women on Facebook,

my God, y'all are mean. Seriously, it's unbelievable. Before you draw your little sword, before you come to a gunfight with a knife, you better be careful because I'll take you down a notch. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

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My buddy, John Rich, of big and rich fame, just dropped by. And this week's a big week for folks that have served or are serving our country. And John has always been a big supporter, like I have, of the military. We love our military. Yes, we do. They're the reason we get to do what we get to do like right now. I can sit here and say anything I want to say. Yes, you can.

Because it's a free country. The American dream is still alive. Because of them. It is still alive, yep. And you guys have, we've talked on the show here before, but people may not remember. You have a brand that is licensed into several different things called Redneck Riviera. And one of the things you did was a whiskey out of it. And there's a huge donation going into Folds of Honor to support our veterans.

Talk about Folds of Honor and what that is. So Folds of Honor is a group started by a guy named Major Dan Rooney, who actually is still an active fighter pilot with the Air Force, and he was watching a plane unload caskets of our killed in action covered in the American flag. And, of course, we've all seen the pictures of them folding those flags into the triangle, then they give it to the family. And Major Dan's thinking to himself, there's got to be something we can do for these families. Look at these kids and the spouse that lost their husband or their wife. There's got to be something we can do for these families. Look at these kids and the spouse that lost their husband or their wife.

There's got to be something we can do. Education. I don't know if we can help educate their kids or the spouse. There's people that they put through college that were so close to becoming an engineer or becoming a nurse. Folds of Honor will step in and help subsidize their college for them. So Redneck Riviera Whiskey, you and I are both big on tithing. You talk about it all the time. I tithe.

So the tithe on the profits of this whiskey go to the Folds of Honor. And this is a brand-new whiskey, man. It's only been out less than 12 months. But we just wrote the check. It covers 37 college grants through Folds of Honor from Redneck Riviera Whiskey. Very, very cool. Yes. And that stuff, the brand is just exploding.

It's doing very well. 41 states. Our goal this year was 12 states and about 5,000 cases. That's a pretty good benchmark for a first year. And we're in 41 states and almost 20,000 cases. So it's going great. People say, well, how do we find it? Because we're not in every store yet.

We're new. But it's really simple. You go to redneckriviera.com. On the very front page it says store locator you click that put in your zip code man and all these stores come popping up we're in places like walmart and albertsons and safeway and wendixi and of course lots of local stores too absolutely yeah and uh and a new uh packaging yeah this is a cool thing so you know there's also a jer a jerky. I've seen you eat some of it. I've probably eaten a little of that jerky. It's a good healthy protein snack, Dave. It's good for your brain.

No salt involved. We packaged it together just for Christmas. There's like a little under 100,000 of these spread around the country, but it's a bottle of Redneck Riviera American blended whiskey, which if you're a Crown Royal guy like I've always been, that's Canadian blended.

This is like the American version of Crown, but it finishes with an all-American whiskey because it's all-American. Then there's two bags of jerky right next to it, and it's under $25. And I put it in this really cool box, which it talks about Folds of Honor on the box. So I thought, man, make it easy for all them country boys and girls. Just wrap that up, stick it under the tree, you're done. There you go. Simple.

Just like that. And you get the benefit of, you're done. There you go. Simple. Just like that. And you get the benefit of supporting Folds of Honor in the process. Yes. It's a huge deal, man, to be able to help those kids get educated. You know how important education is. You know, I met this one lady. She was almost a nurse. She was just a few credits away from being a nurse,

and then she got married to her husband and had kids and never finished. He was killed in action. Folds of Honor came in, paid for her college to finish it out, and now she's a nurse, then she got married to her husband and had kids and never finished. He was killed in action. Folds of Honor came in, paid for her college to finish it out, and now she's a nurse. Now they've got more money, and now the kids are taken better care of. It's an awesome place. Yeah. Now, the kids' education is covered by the military if their parents are killed in action. And a lot of other stuff, too.

There's a lot of wonderful benefits. The military does a wonderful job coming around their families. But this is a supplement on top of that. This is icing on top of that cake. It is. And if you have a parent that's 100% disabled, they also step in. Folger Voter does for that. So it's important, man.

We've all, you know, everybody works hard. The motto of Redneck Revere is work hard, play hard. And I think that's what makes America great. We're allowed to work as hard as we want to. You and I have discussed the Constitution doesn't guarantee us happiness. It guarantees us the right to pursue it. And in the pursuit of happiness is happy. That's where you're having a good time because you're going for it, man.

You're allowed to wake up and go for it. And I love that about our country. You can do anything you want to be. I mean, we've just finished all this entire piece of millionaire research on 10,000 millionaires that we researched, and 93% of them were not inherited. 93% of America's millionaires started from virtually nothing. And see, I don't think most people would realize that. They're self-made guys and girls.

Yeah, they're everywhere. And they look just like everybody else, you know. And so, yeah, it's available. It's available. And it's available then to turn around and to have generosity be part of the thing for something like Folds of Honor. And even the Redneck Riviera bars that you've got in Nashville and in Vegas, you've got a special salute there for people that are service people. It's called the Heroes Bar. So if you're active duty or a vet and you come into Redneck Riviera, first of all, we hire vets, we hire active duty military to come work.

But if you're a vet or active duty, you come in and the carpet gets rolled out. It's like, what do you want? I mean, they'll comp their drinks, buy one, get ones all night long. So the word's really gotten out around America, Dave, when they come to Nashville and come visit Redneck Riviera. It says, we support our troops right on top of the building. Got the American flag up in the sky. And that's another great thing about owning your own business, man.

You can say what's important to you and put it right on your business, you know. I'm proud of that. Absolutely. And we should be. And we should be. And we've got a lot of friends in and around that world as well. And good stuff. So the Redneck Riviera Whiskey Jerky is out there.

What else is going on in that brand? What are the product lines and the bar? Well, there's boots all over the place. You've seen those American flag boots I've got. All the stuff is on Redneck. Oh, I actually have a pair that you gave me. And you have a pair. That's right.

Yes, you do. RedneckRiviera.com. If you guys are sitting at your laptop or your phone, just pull up RedneckRiviera.com. It's right there. Those stores that are carrying the whiskey and the jerky and all that, they're all right there in that store locator. Very simple. Yeah, and for those of you that are Entree Leadership followers,

those of you that have been around the Entree Leadership brand, you're running your own business, you're thinking about things. This is a business case study that needs to be written as a book one of these days when there's more of the story to be told. It's still building. It's still building. But you ended up licensing this phrase. I ended up trademarking it, yes. I mean trademarking it.

The phrase Redneck Riviera has been around since about 1961, 62. And about 10 years ago, it's now been a decade I've been working on it, but I found out one day nobody had ever trademarked it. And so I attempted to trademark it, and they said, no, you can't trademark that because it's a geographical location. And I said, no, it's not. I said, it's the same place Margaritaville is.

And they said, no, it's a geographical location. So I argued with the government for a while, which you know how that can go. Eventually I said, it's a geographical location. So I argued with the government for a while, which you know how that can go. Eventually, I said, it is a lifestyle. It's a state of mind. It's something that has been around a long time, and nobody pays taxes to the Redneck Riviera. You can't mail a letter there, and nobody's address is there.

I say it is not geographical. It is a state of mind. It's a lifestyle. And sure enough, won the arm wrestling match with the U.S trademark office and was able to then start uh putting this brand together but you know putting putting out premium things at a moderate price point i grew up in a double wide in texas man we didn't have any extra money most people don't and so they got whatever they got left over at the end of the week how are they going to go have fun they did the work hard part now how do they play hard with what they got left over so if you buy the boots my boots are made in the same place they make Lucchese. I mean,

those are nice boots, but they're at that moderate price point where most people could afford to buy that pair of boots. This whiskey, I was told it was so smooth because it is. John, you probably get 50, 60 bucks a bottle for that whiskey. I said, yeah, we're not doing that. I said, regular hardworking folks can't spend that kind of money on a fifth of anything. Make it under $25. And they gave me that look like, are you sure? I went, absolutely. Make it where people can get their hands on it.

Just because you're on a budget doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to enjoy yourself. Yeah, absolutely. Good stuff. Good stuff. Good business case. Good generosity lesson and good lesson to remind us of our patriotism and to love our brothers and sisters in arms.

That's it. Thank you, John Rich. Thank you, Dave. Appreciate you stopping by. Check it out, redneckriviera.com Get your store locator and everything else there. This is the Dave Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. One question I get asked all the time is, do I need life insurance? Listen, the whole point of life insurance is to replace your income for someone who counts on you. So if you have a spouse or you have kids, yes, you need term life insurance. It's the only way to protect them until you're out of debt and have built up your wealth.

You're only digging a deeper hole if you waste money on cash value plans since it robs you of the ability to make real progress. And that's why I send you to Zander Insurance, and I have for 20 years. That's where I get all my insurance, and they only offer the plans I recommend. It is not expensive. It's not complicated. And Zander will be there as your guide every step of the way. Visit Zander.com or call 800-356-4282.

You need to get this taken care of. I can give you the advice and I can tell you where to go, but it's really up to you to take that important step to get your family protected. That's zander.com or 800-356-4282. Ben and Janelle are in San Jose, California. Hey guys, how are you? We're great, Dave, how are you? We're great, Dave. How are you? Better than I deserve. I see on my screen you're debt-free.

We are. Congrats. How much have you paid off? $80,000. How long did this take? Five years. Five years. Okay, cool.

And your range of income during that five years? $55,000 to $140,000. Whoa, there's a little jump. What do you all do for a living? What was that? What do you do for a living? Sales management and software. And what about you, Janelle?

I am a marriage and family therapist. So I'm not working right now, but I just finished grad school a year ago. Okay, cool. So your incomes just went up dramatically from Ben's career track right now. Yes. Okay, very cool. What kind of debt was the $80,000? Almost all student loans.

Wow. Okay. And five years you plow through this. So tell me your story. What got you started on this? Sure. So I'll start. I basically grew up in a lower middle class home where we had subsidized lunches and we

were able to afford mattresses and new showers because the church helped out. I remember times where my mom was on the stairs begging collectors not to take our house. At some point during high school, my parents went bankrupt. And then I ended up taking out loans to go to school. I'd never made more than $12,000 in a year as a cashier, and I'm taking out $20,000, $40,000 in a year is a cash year, and I'm taking out $20,000, $40,000 loans for the year. And in 2008, when the financial crisis hit, I just kind of realized, okay, I don't really know what I'm doing with money. A lot of other people are freaking out, so I've got to figure out a plan.

Okay. And I Googled Christian ways of handling money, and your SEO was really good back then. You were the first one that popped up, So I started following that program in 2008, but didn't really get that intense about it until after Sean and I got married. And we went through FPU and really started taking on second jobs, selling everything on Craigslist, doing whatever we could to really learn how to make money and what our career track needed to be. Very cool.

Good for you guys. So congratulations. We're proud of you. Well done. So what do you tell people the key to getting out of debt is now that you paid off $80,000? I think working as a team. Going through FPU helped us to get on the same page early in our marriage, and we were able to really work together, and it gave us a common goal to work towards.

And, yeah, I think that was huge. Yeah, that makes a big difference. We meet very, very few people who do this without the spouse working with them. It's very, very difficult to do, dragging a spouse kicking and screaming into prosperity. Very, very unusual for that to happen. But way to go, you guys. Very, very well done. So I understand your brother Mike works on our team.

Yes, he does. Yeah, I guess he started back in January this year. Cool. And rumor has it he's doing his debt-free scream next hour. He will be, yep. So this is back-to-back brothers here. Here we go. This is cool.

That's neat. That's a first. I don't think we've ever done that. I mean, we've had back-to-back brothers or sisters, but not with one of them working here. So that's pretty cool. Looking forward to that. Very, very neat.

So who were your biggest cheerleaders as you're getting out of debt? I definitely attribute it to our family. When I found the program and started sharing it with people, they kind of thought it was a cool idea and wanted to see if we could do it. And as we started picking up traction, we really had the support of our family. I know we talked when you're out here in San Francisco and you're not a big fan of it, but at one point, we thought we were done paying off the $40,000 that was in our name, and it turned out there was a Parent PLUS loan in my parents' name that had mysteriously

disappeared during the bankruptcy and came back. So we ended up moving in with the in-laws for a couple of years so that we could pay that off really, really fast. And so we're working on ways to get back out, but I'm definitely thankful to the help that they at least provided when we got that surprise. Very cool. Very cool. Good stuff. We got a copy of Chris Hogan's retire-inspired book for you. We want that to be your next chapter in your book. You closed the debt chapter. Now we're going to open the wealth chapter and get you to millionaire status

and be outrageously generous as you go along. Well done, you guys. We're proud to open the wealth chapter and get you to millionaire status and be outrageously generous as you go along. Well done, you guys. We're proud of you. Thank you. Thank you. Can't wait. Ben and Janelle, San Jose, California, 80,000 bucks paid off in five years. They kicked Sally Mae to the curb, making 55 to 140

and quite an adventure during that time. So count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! I love it. Very cool. Very cool.

Got the kiddos in there on the last, the harmony on the clip on the end. Perfect. That's great. Well done, you guys. Very, very, very well done. Ashley's in Baltimore. Hey, Ashley, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Hi, Mr. Ramsey.

How are you? Better than I deserve. What's up? So, well, I'm really happy to speak with you. Um, I happen to be one of those millennials that you talk about who's fired up and give us a reason to do the plan. Um, October 19th, I became debt free, paid off my car, about $17,000 paid off in three months.

And then before that, I paid off my student loans 12 grand in three years. So because of you, I had a better plan. Um, but now the real reason I'm calling is because I am a homeowner, um, but I'm a homeowner with my mom. And, um, this happened about two years ago. Um, the reason why I came into this kind of situation was because I was trying to be a good daughter, helping my mom out. She was in a hard time. And I just thought that this was the right thing to do. She had a lot of debt that prevented her from owning a home on her own.

And so I came in and helped her out. And then, you know, six months later, I just realized that I couldn't do this anymore. I couldn't live with mom anymore, and I needed to figure out something, and I knew that she wouldn't want to just, you know, just up and sell the house, and what's next after that? So, Financial Peace University, I convinced her to go with me, and now we're, well, I'm debt-free now.

We did Financial Peace University in July, so she's on the path. What's your question, Ashley? My question is that she's on the path, but it's going to be about 24 months before she's completely debt-free. But I'm just very frustrated and just want to know what's reasonable to, you know, sell the house and move our separate ways. Okay. So do you live in the house still?

I do live in the house still. And you have your name on the mortgage and your name on the deed and her name on the mortgage and her name on the deed yes okay and um so when you discuss selling the house in order to break up up for, and, you know, she doesn't want to move back into an apartment. She calls it moving backwards. I'm saying, well, I'm moving backwards. How old are you? I'm 26.

Okay. Mom's turning 50 next year. So, Mom, we need to either sell the house because I don't want to live here anymore and I don't want my name on the mortgage anymore, or you need to refinance it and get my name off the mortgage yeah um we've had that talk but I'm you know just trying to figure out what would be fair for her you know do I give a year do I wait till she's completely done? I don't care, but I don't, I mean, completely done doesn't sound like it works for you. Can she refinance the property anytime soon in the next six months or a year? Or we're going to sell the house because you're not going to stay in this situation anymore.

I mean, you have a vote in this too. And so, yeah, this is why you never buy a house with other people that you're not married to. Ever. Ever. Ever. If you have ever changed jobs and you had a 401k, listen, the majority of employees who change jobs leave their old 401k parked with their previous employer, which means out of sight, out of mind. You're not watching it.

You're not keeping up with it. And you probably don't have it invested the way it should be. That's not okay. We always tell you to take your retirement with you when you leave. And the way you do that is a direct transfer rollover from a 401k to an IRA. If you have a Roth 401, you can roll it to a Roth IRA. If you have a traditional 401k, you move it to a traditional IRA. And we always tell you to invest, and I personally invest in four types of mutual funds, growth, growth and income, aggressive growth, and international.

And I use a SmartVestor Pro to do that to help me select those. The guy that helps me with that has helped me for well over a decade. I know a lot about it. I know a lot about working on cars, but I don't fix my own car either. I know a lot about taxes, but I don't do my own taxes. So don't DIY your investments. Dumb idea. So get it rolling.

Jump on DaveRamsey.com. Click on SmartVestor. Enter your info. It will drop down a list of SmartVestor pros in your area. And you can sit down. You choose. You meet with who you want to meet with or as many as you want to meet with, choose one, and then they will help you fill out the paperwork to move your old 401k into an IRA with mutual funds selected well that will very likely outperform your old 401k, but at least it's right there in front of your face and you keep an eye on it that way. Having investments that you've, quote, forgotten about and they're hiding in the closet over there somewhere in your past is a bad way to manage wealth. Michael's with us in Los

Angeles. Hey, Michael, welcome to the Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. It's an absolute honor to talk to you. You too, sir. Thank you. So I'm just going to rattle some things off, and I want your opinion. I am a 50-year-old male. I am in baby step two, currently taking FPU. Other than the $1,000, you know, I don't have a lot of savings. I have about $70,000 in student loans, which I should have paid off at the most about a year and a half from now. Good. I am originally from the East Coast, but I am nursing right now, being a nurse in Los Angeles. It's about $100,000 after taxes.

Good for you. So, thank you. I went back to school late, and it's an awesome career. Okay. My question is, I have this opportunity now to take a permanent job at a community hospital, which is state-run, starting about $125,000 going up to $140,000, $150,000 several years in the future. But it would also qualify me after 10 years to basically walk away, you know, by the time

I'm 65 with about $4,000 a month, give or take, and a pension. And part of my, you know, direct paychecks would be contributed to that. So my issue, you know, in terms of, you know, what your steps are, I don't know, or I don't even know if I would want, you know, to buy the exorbitant housing that is available to me in anywhere in California, especially where I'm living. So I don't know if I would afford or even want to afford to buy that, you know, $800 million house for, you know, which is not much of a house there. I do probably plan to move back to the east to be closer to my family, you know, after 65. Why don't you move now?

Well, that's my point. The opportunity to work in California, and I love where I work. I love the people. I love the hospital. I love the community. But literally, it's basically going from $120,000 down to $70,000 for the same 36 hours of time. And it doesn't offer me any type of long-term you know i'm sure they have a 401k match but there's no pension um i would not make my career decisions or my geographical decisions based on a pension um i would make them based on truly based on that i know but i wouldn't

that would not be the deal breaker for me. I would want to live where I want to live first, and I don't think I, I mean, are you an RN or an LPN? No, I'm an RN. Okay. I mean, where are you going that you're only making $70,000 as an RN? That doesn't make any sense. Are you some little country town or something? No, I mean,

most... No, most RNs in major metro areas make close to six figures. And so, I don't think you're comparing accurately. I don't think the idea that you could only make 70

on the east coast in a major metro area versus Californiaifornia making 140 that is not accurate um i mean it's not that dispersed there's not that much difference and so i i i think you need a little more investigation back in the home state if you want to stay in california that's fine uh but my first goal is to be where i want to be doing what i want to do and making as much as i can possibly make doing that and then use that money to build wealth to retire with way down the list a little bit of icing on a corner of the cake would be a pension i would not work towards a pension.

If it happens to be handy anyway, that's fine. I would work towards a situation where you're self-controlling because the money you're putting into that pension that you're doing mandatory withdrawal on your check is not earning but about 6% or 7%. And you can do better than that. And it makes a lot of difference over the next 15 years whether you make 6% or 7% or make 10% or 12%. A lot of difference over the next 15 years, whether you make six or seven or make 10 or 12.

A lot of difference. So I'm not a fan of, you know, if you want to do the other thing, it's okay. There's nothing wrong with it. But I really think you could make the same similar money out east if that's where you prefer to be anyway. And I think you need to do some more investigation on your career before you make this decision. Matthew is with us in Minneapolis.apolis hi matthew how are you good yourself better than i deserve what's up um i might have this quick question um so my wife and i are um

are willing to pay off debt um but she is thinking that the program is sort of micromanaging her money, not me, and that's where I'm having issues. I'm trying to explain to her, like, the steps are the baby steps and why it's important to save for sinking funds, et cetera. But I just don't know really what to do. Or should I just get, like, a separate checking account and then just have our bills come from there? Why would you get a separate checking account? then just have our bills come from there. Why would you get a separate checking account?

Because she doesn't agree? No, no, just a separate checking account, like, for our bills. Why? Why can you not come into agreement with what you're going to do with your money? We just have, like, just different, I guess, beliefs, I guess. I'm trying to say how to explain it. Yeah. She doesn't like going down to the zero-based budget, which I do.

Okay. But her plan doesn't work. Right. So this is not, let me just tell you, very, very few couples become wealthy when they're not on the same page. Right. It almost never happens. And so it is essential that the two of you continue to work, work, work on your relationship and find some common ground and develop some kind of a plan that the two of you both can work and uh right you know her her obstinance to doing a plan

try it just try it you know right every time you know i have a feeling i have a feeling that you're tightening the screws down so tight on this budget that she can't breathe. Right, and that's the thing where I need to be a little bit more open-minded, I think, too. Yeah, I think you probably need to lighten up on some of your legalism and some of your, I mean, you're just enthused and fired up, and in that enthusiasm, you're winning the battles, but you're losing the war the war is getting your wife and you on the same page i would rather you give up some of the minor issues here so that you guys can get on the same page so loosen up some of these categories give her some more room let her vote count more so that she feels her vote counting and let's get on the same

page here. Because that's what's important. No, I do not want to prepare for your divorce by you separating your money. No, thank you. I want you learning to work together because I want your marriage to get better than it is now. That puts this hour of the Dave Ramsey Show in the books. Thanks to James Childs, our producer, Kelly Daniels, our associate producer, and producer and phone screener i am dave ramsey your host and we'll be back hey guys this is james childs producer of the dave ramsey show i'm excited to announce that we're now carrying on 600 radio stations

across the country. To find one near you, head to DaveRamsey.com slash show.