The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Buy a House or Keep Renting? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: July 29, 2022

Dr. John Delony & George Kamel discuss: Buying vs. renting a home, What to do with extra income, Working the baby steps, What to do after paying off debt, Pausing Baby Step 2 for a wedding. 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

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your money and your life and your relationships, really just about everything, your work, all of it. I'm John Deloney, joined here by my good friend George Campbell, and we're taking your calls at 888-825-5225. That's 888-825-5225. Let's go to Robert in Georgia. What's up, Robert? Hey, good afternoon.

Good afternoon to you. What's up? Oh, well, first I'd like to say thanks for y'all's devotion to helping people with money and stuff. I've been a longtime listener and I got a question here to maybe get some guidance. You got it. What's up, man? All right. So recently I've been divorced, still kind of going through the legal process due to an appeal. However, recently sold the marital home and I now have half the profits. I'm debt free and I'm renting right now. And I'm wondering, should I think about taking that money from the sale of the house and find another property or should I rent for a while?

And I totally get that house prices are probably not going to be going down anytime soon. So I don't know. I just want to get y'all to take on it. Tell me about the legal appeal. Yeah, so basically everything was finalized and I got custody, primary custody and everything. And basically my ex came in and appealed everything. And if you know anything about legal stuff, it takes forever. So we're waiting on hearing back

the results from the appeals court now. How long has this divorce process been going on? It started 2020 and the appeal was filed. So, you know, it took about a year to go through the whole process for the local court. And then the appeal was filed after the final hearing. And, um, did they accept the appeal? They accept the appeal. So the appeal has been, was filed earlier, you know, and and so some we're hoping sometime this fall we'll have the outcome of the appeal okay uh george you can weigh in here i i i would not do anything until that's over what i'd hate for you to do you got little ones involved yes how old uh twins or six okay geez louise man yeah um, I, a worst case scenario would be you take this

money, you put a down payment on a place for you and the two little ones and you start building a life and suddenly come November, some judge that who knows what they're going to say. Um, you end up having to sell this house and fork over some more money. If whatever, who knows what's going to happen? I don't want to get into the legal stuff but i would if i'm you i'm just i can't give you legal advice i'll just tell you just if i'm in your exact same situation and my two little kids and we're figuring out i'm gonna live in an apartment and we're gonna have a blast and we're gonna play at the park until this whole thing has a period at the end of the sentence yeah well that's kind of what i've been thinking um because i was like there's no there's no i i

don't have a rush to do anything right now but but at the same time, too, I was like, maybe I'm letting all the people, the history of the housing market get in my mind, even though I know. I'm less worried about the real estate market. I'm more worried about Robert and this situation and the family. And so the market's going to do what it's going to do, and you're debt-free and you get a big pile of cash. You're going to be all right, regardless of that. The house you wanted is $10,000 or $15,000 more than than it was a year ago. So yeah, I'm with John on this. We're pausing. We're going to keep renting until the smoke clears. And then with our new normal,

we're going to decide, all right, we got 200 grand. We're going to get into a house. How much money is this? It's a little over 100 grand. Okay. Yeah. Cool. I'm just going to park that in a high yield savings account and let it grow at one or 2%. Real boring, but it's going to be the best thing for you right now. All right. Now, I did hear the other day they were talking about there were some treasury bonds or something like that. No, I-bonds? Yeah. No, I wouldn't mess with those. You can only put like $10,000 in a year, and it's affected by inflation and interest rates and so you're not going to make you're going to make pennies on that 100 grand by trying to do the iBonds and it's

going to lock your money up and if you sell them too early there's penalties I wouldn't mess with it man you'll be all right yep stay flexible yeah that's right stay liquid baby hey so okay that's one of the worst brand new sentence Stay liquid, baby. I immediately regretted that as soon as it left my mouth. Hey, listen, Robert, as long as you live, never repeat that. That's just not going to be good for anybody. Good wisdom. Hey, one of the ways that I, in a previous caller, in a recent show, I had a similar discussion. One of the ways I try to stave off anxiety and I try to stave off what comes next

is being busy. Trying to go out and solve and do and do and solve and achieve and get and solve. I really want to challenge you in this season. The smoke is cleared for all intents and purposes. You know this is what it's going to be like unless something wild happens.

Focus on building a new planet that doesn't have to do with um a home that has to do with your relationship with you and your girls because they've been through it right yeah oh yeah yeah yeah it's been a messy couple years and so spend your energy there man and make a peace having some fun out at the parks and going fishing and doing those things and um getting those kids in first and second grade and focus there and then when the smoke clears clears on this thing, then you'll be in a position to say, hey, what comes next? That'd be fantastic.

All right, let's go to Ross in Boston. What's up, Ross? What's going on? Thank you for taking my call. Of course, man. What's up? So I just have a question. So a little bit of a backstory.

So I am 27. I'm a traveling nurse. I've been listening to the show for the past year. I've read Dave's book. And I've recently been able to pay off my student loans, my car payment, and all of my credit cards. Heck, yeah. Now, without the debt, thank you. Now, with this debt that I have, I have all this money now that I am making, and I don't know what I should be putting it towards.

This is a great problem. So you're throwing away at lenders, and they're like, wait, now it's with me. What do I do? Hot potato. So what are your future goals? Are you renting right now? Do you have a car that you like? So right now I am renting. I do have a car that I have now, but I don't have any plans to purchase a car because

I'm enjoying not having a car payment. So I'm just looking to see what I should do with some money. So right now, my financial situation is about $25,000 in a savings account, about $15,000 in an investment account, and then about $10,000 in a 401k. Okay. So that 25k, that's got to be your emergency fund and maybe a little extra? Yes. I am a big-time saver. So I just plan to have about a year of a cushion, I should say. Great. Well, at 27 with a great income like yours and you have a fully funded emergency fund,

I'm going to be investing 15% of my income. You may be doing more than that right now, Are you? Are you doing 15? Yes, I'm actually doing 15 to 20. Aha. All right. Let's dial that back to 15. You're 27. You're going to be a multimillionaire and we have other goals right now because you don't own a home. And so let's start maybe saving up for a down payment with every extra penny that's coming in. And maybe two, three years from now, we can afford a place in Boston and it's probably going to be like a condo, right? My brother's got a condo in Boston and it's insane. It's like 300 square feet and it's like, and that'll be a million dollars, sir. So that would be my next goal for you, Ross, is a home ownership. And with rent going up and

up and up, I'd love for you to have a fixed rate expense there with that mortgage. And as a 27 year old man, you are hitting the road and you're going to have all fixed rate expense there with that mortgage. And as a 27-year-old man, you are hitting the road, and you're going to have all these adventures. There's going to come a moment when you want your own place, and you want to settle down and start getting some roots. And so I love that. Way to go paying off debt, dude. Not weight loans, student loan forgiveness.

Ross is just getting at it. Anytime somebody says, I'm a travel nurse, my first thought is, you're rich. Such a great kid. Awesome. Thank you for your commitment to our communities. We'll be right back. Hey guys, George Camel here, and I'm so excited to tell you about the newest product from Ramsey. It's called Gazelle, and it's a digital banking experience that will help you spend and save

the Ramsey way with banking services provided by Pathword NA. You'll get a single spending account with no monthly fees, and it's FDIC insured through Pathword NA. We're offering early access to our beta customers, so you can help us make it the best experience it can be. Just go to ramseysolutions.com slash gazelle to sign up for the waitlist today. You know those moments when you're sitting right next to someone, but you feel a thousand miles away from them? Feels like a personal attack, John. It kind of does. But it's also true.

Some of you are feeling that way right now, like George. Folks, we've got to put our stupid phones down. We've substituted deep and meaningful conversations for binge watching Netflix and scrolling social media. You deserve better relationships. And that means having better conversations. And that's why I created questions for humans. These are conversation starters that will help you unplug from your screens and actually connect and have fun with the people you care about. And here's the thing. I wish it wasn't the case. It is. And this is the case in my house too.

I have let the skill of just having fun conversations atrophy because I haven't had to do it for a decade now because I just have a phone and we can text and we can just send emojis and call it good and our bodies are falling apart. We launched the first edition of these cards a few months ago and they've been flying off the shelves ever since. The first press sold out, second press sold out, third press sold out,

and people have been asking for more and more topics. And so we got the hint, and we've got new decks in, and we've got new sets of conversation cards. We've added Girls' Night, which I know a lot about Girls' Nights. Guys' Night, night dating parents and teens workplace addition um to the lineup and we also have um education ones now that are going to be for elementary school middle school and high school students for uses in classrooms and in homes all of them will get you spending time laughing together learning something unexpected and building deeper and stronger relationships one of the most common questions I hear, George, from parents is, I don't know how to talk to my teenager.

I don't know how to talk to my middle schooler. I ask my fifth grader, hey, how was school? And they say, fine, it was fine. And they go upstairs. They go upstairs, right? Or they just look at their phone or they just stare off into space out the window. These cards are designed to help you reconnect.

So pick up one, two, or all of our new questions for humans, the conversation starters, and start having fun together. And you can find all of them at RamseySolutions.com. Can I pitch a new idea? I'm all ears. It's a podcast. You, Dave Ramsey, Ken Coleman, and myself, we play Girls' Night, questions for humans.

I think if Dave ever says, I'm through with the show, he's not one to go off gently into that quiet night. He's going to want to just go ahead and cancel all the way out. So I think he would have 30 minutes of just telling his deepest, truest thoughts. And then we would play that. And I think we could officially wrap the show up. I'm in.

Call a slumber party. By the way, for girls night, we did go get some extraordinary, brilliant women of, which we have plenty of here, right here in this building. Yes.

And they are the ones that help direct those questions because i am absolutely unqualified all right let's go to kelly in los angeles in la what's up kelly hey guys how are you good how are you good thanks um so my question is i live in la i my business remotely, and I own a house out right here. No payments on it besides property taxes and insurance and everything. And I'm very sick of the US. I'm going to go travel for a year. And I'm trying to figure out if it's in my best interest to rent the house out and live off the income from that while I'm gone.

Or sell it while the market's still pretty high right now here and put that money in some kind of ETF or index and live off that instead. Incredible. Well, can I ask you, how do you have a paid-for home in Los Angeles? That sounds like a pipe dream. I bought it off a family member a couple of years ago and they've had it for forever, so I got a really good deal on it. Awesome to go so what's the house worth it's probably about 1.8 1.9 oh so it's a it's a two bedroom one bath i'm just kidding that's in the bad part of la yeah that's incredible so you have a paid for 1.9 million dollar property that you could sell i do yeah or you could rent it for how much? Probably about, like, after property manager and everything, I'd probably be making profit, like, $4,500 a month.

Okay. So here's how I kind of look at it, and Deloney can jump in. So you'd make $50,000 while you travel, and they deal with all the hassle, or you cash out today and take $2 million. I don't know. I'm just looking at it just based on math. I know.

So hard. You could park the $2 million in an online savings account and probably make close to $50,000. That's all I'm saying. Yeah, I'm scared that like, I'm worried that property values are just going to go up and I'll get priced out of the market and not be able to come back if I want to. You're going to be okay regardless. You have a paid-for home in L.A.

You're going to have $2 million. Also, people are, the population in California is going down for the first time in history. So I'm not saying that the prices are going to go down, the values are going to go down, but I don't know that they're going to appreciate wildly in 12 months. And, Kelly, I don't know if we mentioned this, you'll have $2 million in a checking account. I'm doing the napkin math for her, John. What's the chances that you're going to move back to LA? Like you go away.

Okay. Here's the other thing. When somebody gets to a place where they're like this, and I'm being serious now, when they get to a place where relationally I'm done, and so this isn't a boyfriend you're walking away from for a year. This is America. I'm done with the U.S. I've got to get out of here.

I'm going to go wherever. You don't know where the winds take you when you open up the sails out on the open sea. What I would hate for you to do is to get somewhere You don't know where the winds take you when you open up the sails out on the open sea. Okay? What I would hate for you to do is to get somewhere and say, actually, I want to relocate here for a while. Make this a couple of years. Make this three or four years. And you've still got this property.

It's much better to hit the road, to be out there and say, ah, I'm free. And I've got a $ million dollar safety net and a money market account somewhere and man that's a totally different proposition for me so if you're my friend or you're my sister i would say dude sell your house be untethered have the world's greatest fallback plan and the chances of you moving back to la who knows what's going to happen in a year with you and your adventures, right? Yeah, no, you're totally right. Kelly, I just did the math here.

Even with the 1.5% interest rate on that high-yield savings account, you'd be making about $30,000 a year if you parked $1.9 million in there versus getting $50,000, but who knows if the HVAC goes out and needs repairs, and you're dealing with that while you're traveling and eat prey-loving. I don't know what you're about to do across the globe, but I just

don't want to deal with that on this adventure as kind of being a landlord, even deal with property management. They're handling a lot of that, but it sounds like your heart's not in this property anymore anyways. Yeah, that's probably true. I mean, I've been fighting it, but... So you're not going to be that excited to even come back to it a year from now. You're probably going to be a different Kelly after this experience. You might be a Texas Kelly. You might be a Florida Kelly. You might be a New York Kelly.

Who knows? There's something magical about being untethered and having $2 million in the bank. I don't know. I was trying to picture that in my head, and it's a great picture. Yeah. It's feels good. I was trying to picture that in my head, and it's a great picture. Yeah. It's a fun picture. I think I've made the decision. I don't know that Kelly has, but I've made it in my heart.

I'm excited to travel. This may be, James, you were asking this the other day to remember some of our favorite calls. This is going to be one of them. Do I want to have kind of an anchor connected to a chain around my ankle and make about $50,000? Or... I just want to be in the south of France and be like,

yeah, we're going to do two appetizers. I want the avocado toast because I have $2 million in my checking account. You can afford avocado toast. That's right. The only, one of the only people, yes. And then you throw in the gluten-free bread up charge. Are you kidding me?

But you know what? I've got $2 million. I like this plan. Gluten-free me. I'm in. I'm all in. And I also like the idea of getting out of California, going to see some stuff, and then making some decisions.

And guess what? If you want to live in California again, you have $2 million to go get you a place in California. Hey, to everybody listening, though, and George and I are poking some fun, I think mostly because we're both kind of jealous. 100%. This is why we do this. This is why you work so hard to be debt-free. This is why you grind it and you get through the baby steps.

This is why you save money. This is why you pay your house off. Because then you have these moments in life. When we've talked to people today, George, that husband just announced, I'm leaving. I'm out of here. Or you get so frazzled and frustrated with work, with the news cycle, with whatever. And you say, you know what? I'm going to France.

I went to Australia for a year. Like wherever you happen to find yourself. This is why we do this. This is called freedom. And this is called peace. Margin and bandwidth and options and meaning. It's all lumped in there. It's peace.

Yes. Hey, George, I do want you to know that $2 million is not enough to cover the shame of eating gluten-free avocado toast. Oh, James roasting me in the comments section of Real Life. Wow. Wow. Your memories are meant to be relived, not chewed up by the VCR or worn away with time. Converting your old media with Legacy Box stops fading in its tracks, so your home movies are safe forever, and you can trust Legacy Box. I've met the founders. They're right here in Tennessee, and they've helped over 1 million folks protect their memories for a limited time you can get started for just nine dollars a tape at legacybox.com slash ramsey that's legacybox.com slash ramsey 888-825-5225.

That's 888-825-5225. Let's go to Trevor in Minnesota. What's up, Trevor? Hi, John. Thanks for taking my call. You got it, my brother. What's up? So I'll just give you a quick rundown here before I ask my question.

I'm 26 years old. I've been working the baby steps since December of 2020. I've paid off $22,000 so far. I have $14,500 left. In that time, I paused to cash flow my wedding and honeymoon. That was in June. Last year, I made $80,000. My new wife made about $65,000. My question is, I'm going back to college full-time starting in August while also working full-time. I'm making a drastic career change from law enforcement. I'm going into counseling.

The estimated cost of that is going to be about $50,000. And on top of that, we are expecting our first child in March. So I was just wondering what the best course of action is going to be going forward as far as our finances and if we should continue with the baby steps paying off debt or if we should just stack money away for school and the birth of our baby. So when does school start? School starts end of August. Whoa, like a month from now?

Yep. And you have $50,000 to throw at it and cash flow it? No, that is going to be about the total cost. Okay, so how many years? Is it a four-year program? It'll be three. I have three years left. Do you have the money to get through the first year first semester first year um we have enough to pay off the first semester that's due in september okay um so i grew up in the home of a policeman i've spent my career working with policemen and i also have a degree in counseling graduate degree. So I've been there for all the things you're talking about.

Please don't put yourself and your new young child in the hole any further by taking on debt to get through this program. Okay? Okay. I'd rather see you take a semester that you can pay for, work another semester, pay for another semester. I'd rather you figure it out that way or work your butt off this semester to impress your professors and show them that you're all in

and be a great student so they can give you some scholarships, give you a research assistantship or something that will help you with your tuition. I'd rather you do that than wake up to be a counselor to go help people. And your experience as a police officer is going to make you a remarkable therapist. You've seen some stuff. You've sat with a lot of people. You're going to be a gift. I don't want you driving to that job every day to help other people

burdened by $40,000 in student loan debt and a new baby. Okay? Yep. Is that cool? I know that's hard and it's kind of dream-burst-y, but please make that a priority for you and your wife i'd rather you i'd rather you see you drag this program out and go four years or five years then come out with a whole bunch of debt so yeah what that looks like in the baby steps is pausing baby step two we're saving up for the baby we're going to make sure

we can cash flow this semester once baby and mom are home safe we're going to look at the next semester making sure we can cash flow that and once all baby and mom are home safe, we're going to look at the next semester, making sure we can cash flow that. And once all the money is there and you know you're going to get through school debt-free, then we can start attacking those other debts you have. But until then, you got a lot, you got some mountains ahead of you. And so it's okay to pause right now to make sure that we can cash flow that and not go further into debt? Okay. Yeah. So you're saying basically stack away cash, get that $50,000 saved up or approximately 50,000, and then go back to baby step two and continue from there. Because that leaves you still with your 14,000. You'll be making minimum payments on those, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And you don't have to save up all $50,000, you know, like we're saying,

but as long as you can cash flow each semester, and the faster you can get it stacked, the faster we can get to the debt. And are you still going to be working through school? Yeah, at least through the bachelor's program and then the master's program is one year, which at that time I'll have to resign and just do the master's program full-time. Well, I mean, I got through a Ph through a PhD in counseling working full-time, including my practical man supervision and all those things.

So there's ways you can use ways to figure it out. So is this like a 3 plus 1 or a 4 plus 1 program? Yeah, it's a 4 plus 1. Okay. All right. So you're looking at about four or five years of schooling anyway down, just checking it out. Well, I already have my associates. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. So you're just going and taking your counseling classes and then you're going to start rolling and taking your graduate courses too, huh? Correct. Okay. And then you will head off and do your practicum. And where this will get dicey is when you're doing your supervision hours, depending on where you find your, when you get

your clinical hours in, so you can get your license. That's sometimes that gap that year to 18 months, because some places require you to pay them to do counseling for free so they could supervise you. But sometimes you can find placements where they pay you and that ends up working out pretty well for you. So yeah, very cool, man. Yeah. You're, you've got, you're up against it. And, but it sounds like you were all doing all the right things to get you where you want to go five, 10, 15 years down the road. You may not be able to progress as fast as you want to go, but don't go backwards. Yeah, absolutely. Don't go backwards. Thank you so much for the call. Thank you for loving your community, both as a dad and as a police officer and now as a counselor.

It's such a great, great gift. All right, let's go to Johnny in St. Louis. What's up, Johnny? Hey, what's up, y'all? We're just getting it done, man. How are you? Same here, same here. Hey, guys, quick question.

I am debt-free except for my vehicle. I got my $1,000 setback. I got six months of expenses setback. I got about $5,000 in 401K. What should be my next step? Double hammer the car or what? Hold up, Johnny, I'm real confused. You just said you're doing the baby steps, but now you're saying you got your fully funded emergency fund, but you still have a car loan? Yes, I got the car loan. So you could pay off the car loan today with the savings? I got $7,000, so yeah, and I owe about $18,000 on it. You owe $18,000 on the car, and you have $7,000 in savings. Right. What's the car worth? Right now, the Kelly Group look is a little over $19,000. That's what it's worth. Okay, and what's your income?

About $40,000 a year. Woo! Sell the car! Dude, that's a lot of car, Johnny. Johnny, sell the car! Okay. I mean, how long is it going to take making $40,000 to pay off the $18,000? A hundred years.

It's right now set for about 36 months. I've got 36 months left on it. So three years of slowing your life down, not getting to do what you want to do, but you get to drive this car. How nice is this car? It's a 2020 Equinox. It's got not even 15,000 miles on it. Okay. I thought you were going to impress me with the features. It's got heated seats, baby. Well, Johnny, I've never heard anybody... I don't want to run anybody

down. That's not my thing, but I've never heard anybody be like, what's up? I got a brand new Equinox. What's up? What's up? You're like dim apples. No, it's a nice car, but I've never heard anybody be like, what's up? I got a brand new Equinox. What's up? What's up? It's a nice car, but you can get another nice car. They're out there. So if I'm you, I'm going to be debt-free today. I'm going to sell the car. Yeah, this afternoon. You'll have $1,000 plus your $7,000. Let's go get you a $5,000, $6,000 kind of beater car. That's what it is in this

market. And then you'll have all of your income back in your life, and we can be about the business of getting the emergency fund in place three to six months, followed by upgrading in-car. And Johnny, listen, by the end of this weekend, you know what you could be?

Dead free. Totally free. I wasn't going to whisper it, kind of creepy like George just did, but you're going to be free, man. Free, Johnny. Is that better than a new Equinox? Yeah, it is.

Yes. That way I can work on my retirement at 50 years old too. There we go. Now we're getting excited about the future. Dude, you're going to be, by Sunday afternoon,

you've sold this Equinox, you've bought yourself another car, it's not going to be pretty at all, but you're going to be walking taller. You're going to be about two inches taller.

But Johnny's going to be able to retire with dignity. That's a fair trade. Yes. And you're going to be able to get to and fro. I'm excited for you, man. Are you ready?

I'm ready. Take the step. You got this, man. Yes. You're going to be able to get to and fro. I'm excited for you, man. Are you ready? I'm ready. Take the step. You got this, man. Excellent. Congratulations on taking a step to freedom. Man, there's something about like, yeah, but it's new, man. It's new. I just got it.

I just got it. I know. And there's something about going from a nicer car to a less nicer car that just, it hurts your pride. It's like you're failing. Or you're losing. But I care more about Johnny's future than his feelings right now. And I'm pumped about his future.

You should tweet that out. If I knew how Twitter worked, I would tweet that out. Do people still use that? I don't know. I'll do it and see if anyone responds. You care about your future instead of your feelings. I like that. Well done.

We'll be you next time. today's scripture of the day is proverbs 18 15 an intelligent heart acquires knowledge and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. Albert Einstein says, learn from yesterday, live for today, and hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning. I love that. Ask some good questions.

That's fantastic. All right. Hey, George. Hey, John. So, new... Are you okay? I'm good. Okay right. Hey, George. Hey, John. So, new... Are you okay? I'm good. Okay.

You're breathing heavily. No. You got me worried. I was just running there. Sorry. I thought you were upset about this article. No. It's rare that I get to say these words.

I was right, and I continue to be right. James brought us in this article here that this is a big news flash everybody so if you're doing something dangerous driving heavy machinery you're going to want to park it for a second because this is earth shattering news I hope someone is like on a tractor right now who's going alright got to park this thing

some guy's got a forklift and he just sets all the stuff down he's like hang on guys hang on hang on Deloney's about to drop something on us article suggests social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok are negatively impacting users' finances, as well as causing nearly half of Generation Z and millennials

to feel unhappy about their financial situations, according to a recent study. Those feelings include jealousy, inadequacy, anxiety, shame, and anger. User spending habits are negatively impacted as nearly half of users admitted to making an impulse purchase based on something they saw on social media, most of them, 64% saying they regretted them. Additionally, 64% of parents with children under 18 on social media have reported the online platforms contributing to their kids having unrealistic expectations about money.

I can't believe it took a study to get here, John. This is about the millionth study that's come out, and here's the frustrating thing. Whenever I'm talking to a parent and they say the words my 11 11 year olds addicted to i always stop them say they're 11 they have no access to anything that you don't allow to be put in front of them so unless they're in like uh the parents are divorced and there's a, uh, you know, one parent is, is just getting off the rails.

Your kid's addicted to fill in the blank chicken nuggets, their iPad, their iPhone, the video games, because you allow it. And so when a parent says 64% of parents with children under 18 on social media have reported the online platforms contributing to their kids not doing well i just want to pull my hair short but i just want to pull it out because they're all it's like man i handed my kid this thing and their life has fallen apart man it's just it's wild because how did we not think that like staring into a screen of other people's facade of success would not cause us to make terrible financial decisions and be depressed? And getting other children who are not known for, A, their kindness to one another, B, making wise, discerning judgments about the appearances of other people, let's give them an opportunity to comment on how I look,

what I said, how I write, how I speak, how my teeth and hair look, how my money looks. And then you partner that with very targeted marketing that's listening to everything you're saying and then saying, hey, you can buy now, pay later with one touch of a button and all the boxes will show up that will give you immediate happiness. Billion dollar companies who have partnered with neuroscientists

to figure out how to best manipulate your 16, 14, 13, 11, 10-year-old into buying things, and then we just let it happen. Parents, take control back of your children's minds, please. Please. And I'll tell you, as the parent of a child who, he's found himself on an island my oldest because he's one of the very few that doesn't have a phone man I would love

a group of folks to say we're on the same team John I got another tweet worthy line for you the problem when you run other people's races is that there is no finish line yeah it's never enough you can't i'm comparing well well he got a bigger house than me and it's not fair because like i feel like i work harder and like i went to a this better school and i got

this degree and why do they have all this stuff now you don't know their life you don't know how deeply in debt they're in you don't know if their marriage is falling apart and yet we're scrolling going oh just see how the deloney's got a new look look at the car he's driving he must be doing very well the other night a couple of buddies here from the office we went up to a concert from a 90s band we basically just like a karaoke night and i have to admit i took five or six photos of us just looking like we're having a great time to get just the right photo looking like we're having just the right amount of fun and if you look at it and say yeah that's not a very good photo you should have seen the other ones that i deleted right we curate this world

and then we put it out for the for everyone else to say look how much fun we're having and i'm an adult and i fall for it and i do have to call out producer james was at that concert he was uh i think he can vouch for the fact that it was not a good time and that he wasn't quite posing. No, it was a great time. It was a little bit awkward when he took his shirt off

and threw it into the crowd, but other than that, it was... That did feel a little bit aggressive and excessive. We had a great time. Yeah, but I mean, James gets... But it's a great point. He has a good time.

What you don't see is, like, the craziness and chaos of the day, the hard parts, and again, it's hard to even capture that for social media. Usually when you're taking a photo, it's to capture a highlight. Right. But the problem is when you have an entire feed of highlights,

you have this very unrealistic picture of what your life is supposed to be like. And this quote says it best here in this article. You don't know if someone took out a lot of debt to fund the amazing vacation or the perfectly put together outfit depicted in their photos. You just see the smile on amazing vacation or the perfectly put together outfit depicted in their photos you just see the smile and the clothes or the smile in the concert you think

everything's great you don't know what's going on behind those scenes so and on top of that if they paid cash good for them and who cares that's right living your life way to go that's what i love to if i see a nice car next to me go wonder if he paid cash wonder if he's in debt and i go doesn't matter i'm just gonna keep driving look through my windshield because that's how you don't crash. And John, you have personal experience with that. I was looking through the windshield, let us have my eyes closed. All right, let's take a quick call out to Therese in Los Angeles, California. What's up, Therese? Hey, we're up against the clock, so get right to your question. Yes. My question is, I'm wondering if I should refinance my house, get some cash out in order to renovate, and then rent my house out and get that rental money as an

income. And then my thought was to move to a less expensive area, like a different state. Would you rent in that area? No, I'm going to, my intention is to move to a suburbs of, in Georgia. So how are you going to have money to buy the house over there? If you haven't sold your current home? I wasn't going to buy, I was going to rent for a year. Okay. And see if I like it there, number one. Let me flip this around. If you were living in Georgia, would you randomly take out a loan to buy a rental property in Los Angeles?

Halfway across the country? You wouldn't. You wouldn't. Because you would be exhausting and you wouldn't want to be a landlord 10 states over. And would you spend a bunch of money to make your house nicer all so that you cannot enjoy it and someone else can destroy it slowly? Mm-hmm. Yeah, you wouldn't.

Killing me softly with their touch. You wouldn't want to do that. So here's what we're going to do. We would sell your house in Los Angeles and then move to Georgia. I like renting for a year when you move to a new state, but I would cut my ties and take the money and buy yourself a rent for a year, find the community that you want to live in, and then take some time looking for a home and you're going to have some cash.

How much equity do you have in your home? Probably about $650,000. Awesome. That's going to feel good in a checking account while you're looking for houses. Could you pay cash for a spot in Georgia with that kind of money? Yes.

I love this plan. How old are you? That's the thing. I'm 69, and I'm a widow, and I don't have any savings at all. So imagine going into your 70s with no mortgage payment and having some savings in the bank on top of that. And then we can actually live our life and have a great retirement. Or you buy a $300,000 condo and you have $350,000 that you can sit down in a retirement account. Now you're talking about changing your whole life without overcomplicating it with a scheme on top of a scheme on top of a refinance on top of a rental plan. Let's go for simple and let's go for peace as you're settling into the back half of your life. Good word. Hey, I want to thank everybody back there running the booth. Austin,

Will, James, Kelly, the whole gang. George, great show. Appreciate it, man. Fun times. America, thank you so much for joining us. Be kind to one another. And pay off your debts. We'll see you soon. Hey, it's John Deloney, co-host of The Ramsey Show. Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? A lot of those people listen on one of our 600 plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, go to ramseysolutions.com slash show.