The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Ask for a Raise? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: December 1, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Rachel Cruze discuss: Asking for a raise, Saving for a home, Investing in retirement outside a pension, How to know if you're ready to have kids. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods of moving and storage studios, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumped, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. I am Dave Ramsey, your host, Rachel Cruz, number one best-selling author many times over. Ramsey personality, my daughter, is my co-host today. As we answer your questions about your life and your money, we help people build wealth,

do work that they love, and create amazing relationships. Sam is with us. Sam is in Salt Lake City. Hi, Sam. How are you? Better than I deserve, Dave. How are you? Just the same, sir.

What's up? Hey, so I'm on baby step two. I'm getting out of debt, and with that came a promotion in my job. And with that promotion, they gave me a vehicle for personal conveyance and they say that that vehicle will cost the company about eleven thousand dollars a year so i was wondering what your thoughts are on if i give the vehicle back and then just ask for that eleven thousand dollars in the form of a race. Okay. Well, I take it you have another car.

Yeah. All right. And what do you make? This year I'm on track to make about $80,000. Cool. What do you do? I'm a heavy equipment mechanic. Okay.

So this is a truck? Yeah. Well, I have my work truck that I'm in heavy equipment mechanic. Okay. So this is a truck? Yeah. Well, I have my work truck that I'm in right now, and then they're giving me this just to get to the shop in the morning and then to drive back home because this truck is outrageous to be driving an hour and a half in fuel every day. Okay. There's a big commute that you have. Okay. There's a big commute

that you have. Yeah, I drive about an hour each way. To get to work, to pick up your work truck? Yeah. Okay. Surprised they didn't just let you take your work truck. Is it super expensive to operate? It's about

three miles per gallon oh good diesel being about six dollars a gallon here it's you know okay so you make 80 000 you're on the road all the time but not with this truck yeah you have an hour commute how many miles is it to your office from your home uh it's about 65 miles okay so let's call it 150 miles a day and um yes you're putting a lot of miles on your car just getting to work you realize you're oh yeah you realize the value of the vehicle that you're driving is being destroyed by the miles you're putting on it well i mean it's it's paid off has 200 000 miles on it right now and i figure i can at least get 350 out of that before it's done okay what i'm trying to the math i'm trying to run in my head is are you spending eleven thousand dollars a year in lost vehicle value

you're not with driving this old beat up or not old beat up but this high mileage old car you're not because that car's not got a lot of value to start with but if you're taking a eleven thousand dollar value or twenty thousand dollar value car you're cutting the value on it substantially every year just with your commute because of the miles you're putting on it does that make sense yeah and i mean i bought this car for five thousand dollars i know i know but i'm just saying if you were driving a twenty thousand dollar car it changes the equation that's what that so i'm trying to run the math in my head here um you know you're not really saving anything on depreciation the gas is more expensive in the truck are they furnishing you gas yes the gas is more expensive in the truck. Are they furnishing you gas?

Yes. Dude, you can't, I mean, you're burning a bunch of gas. Yeah. You need to add up what the gas is worth. Yeah, I did that actually the other day. Okay. worth yeah I did that actually the other day okay and the truck is about two hundred and sixty dollars a week that they'd have to pay for fuel and then my cost for fuel is about a hundred and eleven dollars a week okay so hell half yeah and where the car is not worth much right now, I just figured it would save the company money.

So it's the switch and the debt. If your car lays down, you're a mechanic, you'll get it back up. Oh, yeah. So $100 a week, $5,000 a year for a raise of $11,000 a year. Well, I wouldn't just turn it in. The only way I would turn it in is if you got $11,000. Yeah, and that's why I wanted to get your guys' stock because when you divide that up hourly.

You're not picking up much money. You're picking up $300 or $400 a month by driving your car versus driving their truck and them furnishing the gas so you're not you're not picking up tons of money here with eleven thousand dollar raise and not having the truck um but how many times how many times last year did your car lay down on you? Zero. I mean, I keep up on preventive maintenance. You know, I always have good tires on it.

You don't have any trouble with weather in Salt Lake then? No. It's all highway miles, so it's all just, you know, they keep the freeway clear, and I know how to drive. Yeah. I mean, I I know how to drive. Yeah. I mean, I get exactly where you are. If we added in a different situation with a more expensive vehicle and some other things, it really wouldn't make more sense to keep the truck for $11,000. Usually, it's more than that. I'm not sure they're going to give you $11,000 just to the truck,

because they probably already own the truck. No, this is a brand-new truck that they're going to give you $11,000 just to the truck because they probably already own the truck. No, this is a brand new truck that they're still making payments on. That they bought for you? Yeah. Yeah. And they have to sell it and give you $11,000.

Or, you know, pass it on to the next person in line for a truck. Yeah. Okay. How big a company? We got... This is so interesting we got like 20 some odd vehicles like light duty pickups on the road and then we have you know a bunch of heavy equipment a couple semis and dump trucks and stuff like that okay all right uh interesting well i i um i don't know if they're going to do it because i i think their mindset is they want you in a reliable vehicle yeah and they see this as having blessed you you need to be very careful with your tone and your language that you come off as very grateful for

the truck i'm really grateful for it i think i can come out a little bit better if you paid me eleven thousand dollars a year instead of instead and i would rather have that would you consider that i'm grateful though either way be careful that's the way it needs to sound okay it doesn't need to sound like hey man rather not have the truck yeah that sounds like after the after i just handed your keys to a new truck that sounds kind of ungrateful. Yeah. So, yeah. Think like if you were on the other side of this desk, how you would feel, right? Yeah.

And that'll help you form your sentences on bringing this up. But, yeah, I don't think it's the end of the world either way. Neither one of these decisions are going to make you rich or poor. But it's an interesting discussion to talk through because company cars um when they take away the company car and give you a car allowance you almost always lose yeah in that scenario and um most of you out there and because they're usually running your butt over the road in that company car in this case you you know, it's just your commute. So it's a lot of different variables in this case. This is The Ramsey Show. number one best-selling author ramsey personality rachel cruz is my co-host today open phones at 888-825-5225. If you've gone through Financial Peace University, chances are it's because someone lit a fire

under you. Mom or dad, your pastor offered it at church, a friend that wouldn't shut up and made you go through. So you finally took the class, you started working the baby steps, and now everything has changed. You changed your entire future. You're able to build wealth, be generous, got out of debt. Maybe you need to be the fire that's lit under somebody.

You could give someone you care about, Financial Peace University, and share the same hope you've discovered. Christmas coming, it's a great way to give gift giving. It's actually a gift that is usable, and that does matter. And when you give Financial Peace University as a a gift they get more than just the course they're going to get the premium version of every dollar so they can start living on a budget and even join the growing in on the group calls with our team of financial coaches so this christmas give the people you care about a gift that actually matters hope freedom financial peace university to give that

as a gift go to ramsey solutions.com slash give fpu ramsey solutions.com slash give fpu miriam is well with us in tulsa oklahoma hi miriam welcome to the ramsey show hi thank you so much for taking my call i'm a huge huge fan. I never miss a podcast. Well, thank you very much. How can we help? Okay. So my husband just got a different job. It's actually with the same company. It's just a different job, and a perk of this job is a house. So he's going to be taking care of a ranch, and there's a house on the ranch that we're going to be moving into. My question is, when it comes to, of course, we'll be able to live there until retirement time, but we'll never own this house.

So my question is, how do I save for a house at retirement? So once we retire, we'll either have money to buy or to build, like something like that. Well, if you don't have rent rent could you just pay yourself rent yeah so like a quarter of our take-home pay would be about fifteen hundred dollars so i'm planning on doing something with about fifteen hundred dollars i just don't know where to put it to make the best um investment for us but with the intentions of it going to a house. So I want to be able to get to it. Good. I would just sit down with a SmartVestor Pro and pick out some mutual funds

and have that $1,500 automatically drafted out of your checking account going into an investment every month. Okay. And then I would just nickname that mutual fund House Fund. Okay, awesome. That sounds great. I have another question if you have time. Okay. And then I would just nickname that mutual fund House Fund. Okay, awesome. That sounds great. I have another question if you have time. Okay.

Okay, so obviously once we sell our house and move into this new house, we're going to be on baby steps four, five, and six. And my question is college. So my son is almost 12. I don't see him going to college, but I want to be able to, um, since we are able to financially help him, I want to do it if he chooses to go. I just don't feel like he will choose to go. So I guess my question is, the way I understand a 529 is it has to be used for college. And I know you can use it for nieces and nephews, but he's the youngest. And so I guess my question would be, is there somewhere that I can put money back for that?

Would it be the same kind of thing like a mutual fund if I didn't want to do a 529? Just stick it in an investment in your name and then if you choose to give some of your money to your son at that point the only difference is that investment's taxable and then a 529 is going to attack and a 529 is growing tax free right yeah but is that did i understand right that if he chooses not to go to college and I'm already invested in a 529? Yeah, it would be stuck there, yeah. I mean, you could use it, your husband could use it, any of the kids could use it. You know, extended family can use it, but nobody else.

And so, yeah, it could get stuck there. It's not stuck. I mean, you don't lose the money, but you would be taxed and penalized both when you took the money out. And so if you want to just go ahead and pay the taxes now, it's not that big a difference, but it does help. If you know you're going to college, it's a smart thing to do a 529, but if you're pretty sure it's not, then I would just have money in your name. It's just your money, and then you can decide what to do with your money later.

Again, nickname one house fund and the other one college fund, but they're just nicknames. it's just your money and then you can decide what to do with your money later uh again same you know nickname one house fund and the other one college fund but they're just nicknames they're both just mutual funds in your name really when you get technically to it you can do it you could you can change the name to boat fund if you want to i don't care right bahamas sounds great bahamas fund that's one yeah that's yeah um cabo you know i don't know put it or even in some parents right they've done where they put money aside like an enigma and then when the kid turns 18 21 it's there or 21 that yeah if you want to just put money in his name you can do that um and it will be taxed only at his rate which is zero until it gets substantial money in there so but that's just

money in his name that's how we did our kids college because 529s were not there was no such thing when our kids we were saving for our kids college and so rachel rachel and denise and daniel all had money in their name in an uttama and um you know that money when they were 21 just transferred to them it was just their money okay um and how much do you think that I should be putting back for that? It depends on how much you want to end up with. I mean, at age 12, you've got six years. So, I mean.

And I would kind of, I mean, you know, if you're not going to do the college funds, I would still save as if you were and almost kind of just follow that plan and say, okay, how much would it be if you was going to go to just a four-year state school? You know, and just kind of let that be the range. Because if not, and he doesn't go, that money could still be used for him to further any type of training, trade school. He could use that to go forward in his future,

even if it's not just a traditional school. Exactly. And any lump sum you got from the sale of your house can also be added to your mutual fund for your future house fund too by the way just to add to this discussion open phones at 888-825-5225 shelly is in court lane idaho hi shelly how are you i'm good how are you better than i deserve how can we help so my main question is this. I'm a retired police officer. I was retired due to medical injuries that occurred on duty. So my retirement is tax free. I do have 457B as well.

So I currently work at a second career selling real estate. And when I retire, so now I have to pay taxes, but once I retire from this job and my only income is my pension, I will not have to pay. I will have no tax basis. So my question is, should I be putting 15% into some other kind of account from my real estate money? Sure. Or should I, would that just be like a traditional rather than the Roth, which would be taxed now and not later? No, it needs to be a Roth. You've got taxes now. Even though I don't pay taxes, I don't want to take it out later.

Right. You want tax-free later on the Roth. It's much better growth regardless of your pension situation. It doesn't affect the Roth calculation. How old are you? 56. Okay. So you're probably let's say you end up with $100,000

in your Roth and it grows to $200,000 you're probably not going to touch it. You're probably going to live off the pension. It's just going to sit there and grow tax-free which is awesomeness. Okay. So yeah, I mean it's just a wealth building tool. It's not a mandatory so I have money to eat at retirement. You've got money to eat

at retirement. You're past that part. But this is just a wealth building tool at this point. All right. So a traditional where you pay taxes on it at withdrawal would not be more beneficial. Yeah, because 10 to 15 years from now, when you pull the money out, 90% of the money that will be in that account will be growth. It will not be what you have put in. And for all of that growth to be taxed then

so that you get a little bit of a tax break now is a bad trade. Okay. Well, good. I hadn't done that yet because I couldn't decide, and I kept waiting for someone else to call and ask the question, and nobody did. And you're the one. Oh, magic. You're the one! Oh, magic!

You're the one that got through. That's important stuff, right, this idea that it grows tax-free. Yeah, well, in the moment, when you're putting it in pre-tax, you're like, oh, that's kind of nice, I'll have to pay taxes on that. When you take it out, that's when you're hit. So take the pain now, pay taxes on it before you put it in, and then that way, gross tax-free. You avoid taxes on $1 now and pay taxes on $9 later. Yep, yep.

Or you avoid taxes on $9 later and pay taxes on $1 now. That's the trade-off. This is The Ramsey Show. Are you sick of planned obsolescence? You know, when companies make products crappy so you have to buy more of their crappy products? Well, me too. And it's why I love companies like Grip6. Grip6 is all about quality products meant to last forever. That's why their comfortable, bulk-free belts, slimline wallets, and lightweight wool socks

all come with a lifetime warranty and simple returns and exchanges. So check them out at Grip6.com today and get up to 20% off with the promo code RAMSEY. Rachel Cruz, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Thank you for joining us, America. We are so glad you are here. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Thomas and Emily are with us. Welcome, guys. Hey, Dave. Hey, thank you. Good to have you. Where do y Emily are with us. Welcome, guys. Hey, Dave.

Hey, thank you. Good to have you. Where do y'all live? Jacksonville, Florida. Very cool. Welcome all the way to Nashville to do a debt-free scream. How much have you paid off? So we ended up paying $220,525.

Whoa. Love it. And how long did this take? That actually ended up taking two years, five months, and one week. All right. And your range of income during that two years, five months, and one week. So that went from $125,000 going up to $220,000. And just about at this point, we're about $200,000. Wow.

What do you guys do for a living? I am actually a real estate agent. And I lease mobile offices. So anytime you see a construction site kind of start up, that's something I end up doing. Cool. Awesome. Very good.

Good for you guys. Well, both good businesses for sure excellent well done what kind of debt was your 221 000 it was our mortgage looking at weird people i love it off the house yes look at you two what's the house worth um probably about 400 i love it how much you guys got in retirement? Uh, I don't know, like 200. Yeah, that's good. Way to go. So you're most of the way to being millionaires already.

I hope so. That's pretty cool. How old are y'all? Um, I am 30. And I'm 36. I love it. Wow. Not even 40 years old in a paid for house worth 400 grand.

How in the world does that feel? Oh my gosh. We wake up every morning just so grateful that we own the entire house. The bedroom, the kitchen. We just counted down the rooms like, okay, now we own this room. Now we own this room. So good. The biggest excitement was getting the lawn.

That was the one I enjoyed the most. The last piece. Oh, yeah. We got the dirt. We're in the case of Jackson I enjoyed the most. The last piece. Oh, yeah. We got the dirt. Or in the case of Jacksonville, the sand. So I got to ask you guys, because you paid off your house. We've had a few calls this show, people that are like, okay, we have the money to pay off our house,

but I feel like I should invest it and make more money and stretch out the more. They're rationalizing it with math. Just tell America, if you could go back, would you keep the cash and just put it in a good investment or would you still pay off the house? How, tell me about the feelings that you have around this. Paid off.

Oh yeah. Without a shadow of a doubt, you pay off the house. Knowing that there's, there's nobody that, that you owe a dollar to is a big win. There's no feeling like, I don't care if we had a hundred thousand dollars more in retirement, it feels way better to own the house. Oh good yeah I love it just the weight is off yes completely free completely free congratulations you guys thank you huge so well done oh so very well done congratulations so two years and how long you've been married uh four and a half years okay so uh 18 months 24 months into your marriage

something woke you up what was the wake-up call my wife yes it was about uh actually about this time in 2018 we visited you at your old place and we said we're gonna be back we'll be back when the house is paid off and we closed on the house in February of 2020. Oh right in time for a quarantine. Oh yeah literally the week before everything shut down we signed the papers. Oh my gosh. And I said well we can't be liars to Dave so we just started paying it off as fast as we possibly could. We know that most people pay it off we got a 15 year mortgage and you always say pay it off in seven we're like we can beat that and so we're

like okay let's do three and a half years we're like we can beat that and then with three years and we ended up doing in just under two and a half years yeah and then you look out there and all that's left's the lawn yeah we can do this. We can buy that. Absolutely. Amazing. I'll buy that. I'll buy a park place. I like it. Exactly. Okay, so was it hard? What was the tune-up years like for you guys?

It was kind of tough. It was a lot of, you know, we can't do this. We can't do that. It was a lot of limiting ourselves. But we just kept our eye on the prize. And we knew as soon as we made that last mortgage payment, we can do whatever we wanted and he can have as many coffees as he wanted. Giving up coffees was hard, but it's, it's totally worth it. Yeah. Great job. So what do you tell people

the key is to getting out of debt? Yeah. So I would say the, the biggest thing is to set a plan, a goal, and do everything to achieve that. I mean, because at the end of the day, if you start veering off from that goal, it really does extend the time. And what we ended up realizing was, as we continued to push towards that, it went from, as Emily said, 15 to five years to even less than that to three years to no two and a half yeah exactly just start if you just have to start you can't put it off you just say this is what we're doing this is our plan we're starting and nothing's going to get in our way you know I remember the sensation that it's weird that the closer you get the more you realize this is really going to happen and the more intense you get the deeper you sacrifice it's like you get the you get weirder

you know with your sacrifices as you get closer because you're like i want to get this done yeah it's like gamified you know yes whenever we were going to make the last payment i called tom at work i'm like can i just pay it off like can i just make the paint last payment and i'm like i just i can't wait until you get home even i just i just want to do it and so i just i called the bank i'm like whatever it is pay it off do it now and we paid it off and i called him up i said we we own it it's ours just like that just like that yep so what's the first big thing you're going to do now that you're rich? We actually have kind of a celebratory vacation plan for our five-year anniversary. So we're going to do that. What is that?

Where are you going? Cancun. We're going to go to Cancun. I like that. Dave loves Mexico. Yeah, he really does. We love it. So we'll be there next summer.

And then we're going gonna buy some investment properties hopefully and just make sure we're set up for life and be able to live and give even after we're not here anymore we want to make sure that our legacy lives on and we're able to give to other people wow you guys are amazing i'm so proud of you okay now that you got weirder and weirder as we said as you get towards the goal uh people make fun of you anybody look at you we'll give you the side eye yeah yeah yeah yeah absolutely there have been some that question you know hey why why do you feel the need to do that and i mean especially as as you kind of referenced how young we are it really was that ask of saying you hey, you're going to understand when we have the ability

to retire at an early age. So that's kind of the next goal, at least the way I'm viewing it. Yeah, totally. Yes, yes. Well, that's the great thing is it just gives you options. When you have that freedom,

you have the ability to save and invest and do things faster, earlier, all of it because you have your income. You have your income. You can do whatever we want. Yeah, that's awesome, you guys. Very cool. Well done. Well done. things faster earlier all of it because you have your income you have your income you have no more whatever we want yeah that's awesome you guys very cool well done well done well done well done who

are your biggest cheerleaders um probably i have to give a huge shout out to my sister lindsey and her husband wesley they are huge fans of yours they you know she got me started on it she they were even going to go on your cruise for their honeymoon they're obsessed the cruise the pandemic cruise that got canceled yes she was crushed but she got me started on it and she was our cheerleader the whole time I mean I would call her all the time be like we made another payment we're this this much closer and she was she was my first call one of her well after I told him we own the house. After that, then I called my sister, and I was like, we did it. We're done.

And so her and her husband have just been amazing. That's wonderful. That's a gift, too, to have family celebrate with you. Yeah, you've got to have people on your team that are going, yeah, especially family, sister like that. That's great. Very, very cool. All right, we've got the Live and Give bundle for you.

That's the Total Money Makeover book and the baby steps millionaires book. Cause that's the next chapter in your story. You're just a minute and a half away from that. So well done. And of course the, uh, financial peace university membership and you, you keep some of that, you give some of that, whatever you want to do with it. And it's our gift to you and saying, thank you for being here. Well done.

We're very proud of you. Thomas and Emily Jacksonville, Florida, $221,000 paid off in two years, five months, and one week, making $125,000 to $120,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free!

Woo! Yeah! That's how it's done! Woo! Man, 30 years old, 36 years old, 8-4, $400,000 house in Jacksonville, Florida. Amazing.

Mic drop! This is The Ramsey Show. សូវាប់ពីបានប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្� our scripture of the day james 1 12 blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because having stood the test that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. Celine Dion said, life imposes things on you that you can't control, but you still have the choice of how you're going to live through this. Thanks for a Celine Dion quote. Wow, look at the drama in that quote. It's a great quote.

Open phones at 888-825-5225. Daniel is with us in San Jose, California. Hi, Daniel. What's up? Hey, Dave. How's your day going? Better than we deserve, sir. How can we help?

Yeah, so my wife and I got married earlier this year. Congratulations. Thank you. I work at a church, and she has I work at a church and she has her own hair salon company and we live in California and it is crazy here financially. Um, we live in a two bedroom apartment, cost us $2,000 a month. And my question is, is it two parter? First is we'd love to start a family, but we don't know when the right time is for that financially to grow a family. And two, we're actually looking to move to Tennessee because of that. So first question, when's the right time for us to start a family?

And two, should we move to Tennessee if it's, or move to another state if we can't handle it financially? Well, I'll say number two, there's a lot of California people here in Nashville these days that we're that we're meeting. We have entire California refugee camps in Tennessee. So, no, people do move for the, you know what exactly what you're talking about though for the financial reasons to have a better quality of life because you just mathematically get more other places than you can where real estate and everything's more expensive so naturally you know you're gonna financially it's gonna be it's not just california dude you're in freaking san jose my god i mean that's like some of the most expensive real estate on the planet.

Yeah. You picked out the most expensive place to live other than maybe Manhattan. And San Francisco. Well, this is San Jose. I mean, it's, yeah. So. How close is San Jose? Silicon Valley.

So there you go. Oh, okay. Yeah. All right. So, wow. Part of San Francisco is what I was thinking. But number one, yeah. I mean, honestly, we don't tell people that you have to be debt free or fill in the blank to get married to have kids. I mean, you still are going to live your life.

Obviously, things are a little bit you breathe easier if you have money saved. I mean, these simple things, but we don't have a hard and fast rule of are you financially ready to have a kid or not? I mean, if that's what you guys want to do and start a family, then yeah, I would start one. But just knowing that the more financially secure you guys are, meaning you don't have debts, you have money saved in the bank, all of that, it's just going to make that transition less stressful if money isn't a huge play in it. Now, there's only one choice that you've got that's better than the

choice you made to marry her, and that's babies. Babies are awesome. Get babies. They're awesome. Okay, it's that simple, all right? And now the question is then, you know, how do you do that in a way that doesn't just completely freak you guys out well you've got to do a little bit of thinking about the money yeah but there's not a thing that says you know you have to have this and this and this before you can afford to have children well that's crap they're start with they're not that expensive they do cost i mean but it's it's not people act like it's a range two hundred thousand dollars or something it's yeah it's some diapers and some, and you have to pay the pediatrician's Porsche payment. That's it.

But then when you, did you say the pediatrician's Porsche payment? But if, you know, Daniel, if your wife works, though, you know, you think about child care. I mean, there's some, I mean, you got to think through your life so that naturally is going to be more expenses. But if you're going to move to another state and you're going to have a kid, you know, in the next 12 months, then you need to decide which one to do first. I wouldn't try to do both at the same time. They're both going to cost you, you know, what, $2,000 to $5,000 to make a move, $2,000 to $5,000. I mean, if you do a cheap move and you throw some stuff in a U-Haul, is there still any U-Hauls left in California? But if there's any left, you could get on that and take it out of there and or get you a pods right and um pods people our pods our sponsor

will help you and you know get moved anyway and but it's not super duper killer expensive and neither is a child if you've got health insurance and so um you know but I wouldn't want to do both in the same number one you don't want to move with a pregnant lady that's a bad idea okay so let's uh you know let's think about that and then on number two let's think well it's not it's not fair to her i mean you got enough to do you know we moved three weeks after i had a baby and i was able to sit on the couch hold a baby and just tell everyone what to do so that was actually tell everyone where to go that's exactly what happened yeah I just had a baby three weeks ago no those are just big life changes Daniel they're just big life changes that naturally are going to cause stress it's not I mean you're just naturally going to be a little bit more

on edge when given a choice I wouldn't do them all at once yeah yeah yeah so I mean I would do one and then the other and how long have you guys been married daniel just got married the first year yeah about uh nine months okay and uh it's been the best nine months ever oh daniel you're so sweet he's a good guy so nice you're gonna be great levi's with us in tulsa oklahoma hi levi what's up, how you doing? Appreciate your time. Sure. How can we help? Yeah, my biggest question is basically how long is too long for staying house poor? Hmm. Okay, give us some more details, Levi. What's your situation? I make about $60,000 a year as a mail carrier. And my wife just recently, we had a baby about 10 months ago. Congratulations.

And we have been able to put him in child care with my family. So we haven't had to spend any money on that for now. My wife has decided she wants to stay home and spend more time with the baby. And so that's cut her $60,000 salary completely out of our equation, and we have a $1,300 a month payment for our house. So with just my salary, that pushes us out of the comfortable range. Yeah. Well, you know, what I don't want to do is sign up for indefinite.

So indefinite sounds like she's going to stay at home and you're going to be a mail carrier making 60K. You're stuck. This is not sustainable because you don't have an exit plan from house poor. If you've got a plan, you've got a plan and you hold your breath, meaning you're going to do something to double your income in the next two years or three years, then we can hold our breath and get through that, right? Right.

But 10 years from now, you don't want to be signed up for this exact same trip. No, no. The biggest problem is I really like my job. It's going to increase, but, you know, federal government is not going to increase what I need. Not much. No, I mean, your income went from $120 to $60. Yeah, your income went from $120 to $60. We have to have a path to get it back to $100, or we've got to have a different house.

Yeah, and, you know, even in Tulsa, Oklahoma, houses are, we would be either renting in a dumpy part of town or buying in a dangerous part of town. And not really wanting to do either one of those, you know, it's, I hate to be the kind of guy that's like, hey, we really need you to go work somewhere. You know, I don't want to. Look, it's a choice. If she wants to be home, it's not going to be in that house or you're going to change careers okay the math just isn't there yeah okay and i don't care which i don't care personally which one you do um but one of you is going to make some

different choices about your career, you or her, or we're not going to live in this house. That's the thing. And so it's not how, you know, and then if you tell me, Hey, I'm going to do this thing, I'm going to ramp up and go, I'm going to go to code school and I'm going to go make $150,000 a year doing, uh, Ruby on rails coding. Okay. And that's going to take me two years

okay we can hold our breath three years i can do that all right but then levi and this is a values conversation for you guys for you and your wife to talk through because in order for her to stay home which is great be very delicate ps when you're talking to her she has a baby less than a year and she wants to be with the baby okay so be very delicate when you're communicating with her but to be, but like, like if that is worth it to y'all, then we're living in a small, smaller house is worth it.

It's a value system of your family, but it's going to have to sacrifice. And you guys can do that. It might be further out of town. Yeah. That's the way that works. That's right. That's right. Something like that.

That puts us hour of the Ramsey show in 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.

Hey, it's Rachel Cruz, co-host on The Ramsey Show. If you want to do your debt-free scream live on the show, visit ramsaysolutions.com slash debt-free scream. We'd love for you

to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash debt-free screen. We'd love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash debt-free screen.