The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Buy My Parents a House? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: September 21, 2022

George Kamel & Ken Coleman discuss: Buying a house for your parents, Offering to be an unpaid intern, Getting a pilot's license during the baby steps, The best way to save for retirement. 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

МУЗЫКАЛЬНАЯ ЗАСТАВКА Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the pods, moving and storage studios, this is The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. I'm George Campbell, joined this hour by my friend Ken Coleman, and we are happy and excited to take your money. I'm George Campbell, joined this hour by my friend Ken Coleman, and we are happy and excited to take your calls. The number is 888-825-5225. You jump in, we'll talk about your life, your money, your career, whatever's going on in your world. Scott joins us up first in Seattle. Scott, welcome to The Ramsey Show.

George, Ken, so happy to meet you. Thanks for taking the time to talk with me. Happy to do it. Ken, in particular, your proximity principle got me one of my most recent jobs. Oh, that's awesome, man. Great to hear. Thank you. How can we help today? So I've got a family finance question. The gist of it is, should I buy my parents a home with my brothers? A little bit of backstory. I'm in my parents a home with my brothers? A little bit of backstory.

I'm in my early 30s. My brothers are also similarly aged. Parents are in their early 70s. My dad can't work. He has a genetic disease. My mom is probably going to have to stop working to take care of my dad. They unfortunately don't have retirement savings. They just have social security. So the alternatives are like, do we pay their rents? Do we put them in low-income housing? Do we build an in-law unit on one of our properties?

So yeah, kind of a whopper. Well, let's take off the low-income housing, right? That's not really an option, is it? It doesn't seem like it because it's going to take a few years probably for them to wait on the list. And, you know, I worry about it being safe. Yeah, I know that. That's why I just, let's take that off the list. You and your brothers are good dudes. You're not going to allow that to happen.

Are they renting right now, you said? They are. They're renting near me in Seattle. Rents about $2,000 a month for a small one bedroom. Ouch. Yeah, it hurts. And you need them close by? I mean, could they live somewhere further out that's less expensive? So it's a good question. The leading case for us, our leading candidate, is to move them down to Huntsville, Alabama, which is where my brother's based. Ah, okay. And he'd be their family point of contact. We could either have really cheap rent or buy them a small house for about a third of what it costs up here in Seattle.

I like that plan better. Are they willing to do that? They don't really have any options. Yeah, they don't have options. They're kind of stuck. We are their retirement plan. Kind of unfortunate, but that's how it is. I'm sorry. Tell me real quick about the option of adding on to one of the brothers' house for the in-law suite. How viable is that and where would that be? It's probably my wife and my house up here in Seattle that has the best space for it. It's a risk because there's no financial ROI for my brothers if we buy them a house or if we

extend our house, right? Like we're probably not going to give my brother's equity in our home if they contribute financially oh and so you would need their you would need their contribution to be able to afford it that's right and they would never get that contribution back so this would just be a gift probably not can you guys afford if we walk george through the huntsville situation what kind of house? How much are we putting in? Can you afford it? Do you have the cash to put in your part of the down payment? Yeah.

Yeah, so we've got right now, we're looking at homes that are under $300,000. Kind of two to three bedrooms, 1,000 to 1,200 square feet. Why do they need three bedrooms? You know, this is where it's tricky because we're buying a house for tenants who are our parents. And they really want an extra bedroom to host. Who are they hosting? That's two bedrooms, not three.

I know. I know. It's a good, good question. They don't get to have a wish list. It should probably be a two-, not three. I know. I know. It's a good, good question. They don't get to have a wish list. It should probably be a two-bedroom house. It probably should. You guys are paying for it. You go, Mom and Dad, we're going to get you a two-bedroom. That's it.

You can have guests in the living room. They got things called air mattresses. You know, I was thinking about that. It's probably, for the amount of cost it's going to be to buy them a three-bedroom. I could just get a hotel when I visit. Well, if family's coming through, could they not stay with the brothers? Yeah. This just feels like a non-issue.

I think we get the most affordable house possible when it's you guys footing the bill. And are they in a financial spot to contribute? Have you talked to them about that? Yeah, we've talked money. We could do for sure 20% down, maybe more. And yeah, potentially if it was a $200,000 house, we could probably do 30% down. And so their social security, if you do that, if you and whatever they've got, plus the brothers, are they going to be able to cover their rent and their budget from their social security yeah we're not going to charge them rent of course we're just going to view it

as a as a long term so you and the brothers are splitting up the mortgage payment yeah are your brothers pushing you to do the three bedroom or is it just mama uh there's a bit of brother pushing yeah bro i'm gonna tell you george i got all kinds of red flags on this this just sounds like a messy situation even down the road trying to split this house it feels messy why not just cover their rent in huntsville and split that yeah as long as they're on this earth it's not a bad idea yeah but i can just tell you right now your brothers who are pushing for the three bedroom and the roi and all that they're not going to want to pay rent they want they feel like

they want something back that's right oh i know i can hear i got the whole thing well it feels like dude listen i gotta tell you right now this is this may be very unpopular but i happen to be one of the co-hosts today and you called um I would tell my brothers, here's what I'm willing to do. Yeah. You'll have to come to an agreement at some point. And if you guys aren't willing to do that, that's totally cool. You guys figure it out. But I'm willing to contribute to a two-bedroom

and we need to have an agreement written up that we all sign that says when we sell this house, it's equal parts. I'd get a real estate attorney involved. I'd get a real estate attorney, absolutely. Everything needs to be on paper and there ain't no discussion about it. No handshake agreements here. No handshakes. No, I promise we're good. None of that. Or I would walk from it and go, mom, dad, I'm sorry. I can't contribute to this and you gotta tell your brother same thing that's really good the real estate attorney piece is one we've talked about but um i think it's there there are so many cooks in the kitchen we haven't gotten that how many brothers are we

talking it's me and two brothers okay see i think you need to take on the chief cook role for a couple of days and go hey guys here's what we're doing if you want me involved. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I know. My wife's been saying similar things, too, of we need to have more clearly lined up, like, roles, responsibilities, obligations.

Yeah, who's doing what? Who's going to cover the HVAC when it goes out, and who's going to go over there? And this is, we've got a real, I think you all need to get on a Zoom call this week and go, guys, we've got to talk. We've got to talk through every nitty-gritty detail or else this is going to turn into broken relationships down the road.

But Scott, you have to say, this is what has to happen for me to be involved. And if not, guys, I'm cool. I'm out. Your wife is right. Listen to your wife. Ooh, that's some good advice. Timeless wisdom from the spouse there. Ken has learned.

Oh, boy. Still trying to learn. It's going to be a messy situation no matter which way you slice it. I just don't want to see any broken relationship over this. And so we've got to be real clear because to be unclear is to be unkind. Wishing you the best with this, man. This is The Ramsey Show. Hey, you guys.

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Natalie, welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, thanks so much for taking my call. Happy to take it. What's going on? So I have kind of a career question. I just came across a job posting for a job that I would love to have eventually. And I'm thinking about reaching out to this company and seeing if they could use me as an unpaid intern and I'm just wondering if that'd be a good idea to ask and what would be the best way to ask like should I email go in person that'd be weird I'm just not sure yeah I love this by the way I've employed this strategy, and I love it. But before I tell you what to do, do you need, you've got an income situation coming in, or are you okay to be able to go do this?

Like, this isn't going to affect you negatively if you get this. No, I mean, I have a full-time job, but my hours are really flexible. So I don't think I could swing this full-time, but I could do, like, part-time job, but my hours are really flexible. So I would, I don't think I could swing this full-time, but I could do like. Yeah, but for an internship. Great. Okay. That's all I wanted to make sure of. So this is going to be bonus for you to get the experience and the connections. That's why we're doing this. And I love this. So here's how you approach this. I want you to try to approach this in person. So do we know somebody that knows somebody over there in the department that you want to intern for? Have you narrowed it down to that? Like,

I know I want to do, I want to intern for somebody who's doing this or in this department, this kind of work. Have you narrowed that down? I assume you have. Yeah, I don't know anyone at the company though. But I'll bet you know somebody who knows somebody. True or false? Think about that one for a second. Now, I don't think you can actually confirm that, but the question is, you think about all the people you know.

Is the company in your area of Portland? Yes, it is. How many people do you know? I want you to give me just a loose ballpark guess. How many people do you know? That's everything from close personal connections to acquaintances in Portland, how many people would you say you know? Not many. I'm not from here. Okay, just give me a number. I'm going somewhere with this. Do you know 10 people? Maybe.

Okay. Okay, so you're brand new to the area, right? Kind of. I mean, I've been here for a while, but the company that I work for is out of state. So you're working remote and all that. Okay, here's my exercise, okay? The point is, if you know 10 people, how many people do you think those 10

people know? Give me a number. Hundreds. Hundreds. So here's my point. Let's start with the 10 people you know and go, look, I'm interested in making a connection over at company ABC, whatever the name of the company is. Okay. I literally want you to start there because I think you'll be surprised what might turn up. Because before we go into just walking in off the street or reaching out via email or phone, I want you to do all right. So I want you to do the whole thing, but I'd love for you to find out who is in charge of the department that you want to work for. Do you already know that? Have you gone on the website and figured out who it is a real person's name no i haven't okay that's where we start okay so we go to that website we find out linkedin whatever we dig and you can do this natalie you know you can you can find out

who is in charge of that division or department where you would love to intern we start there now we got a name okay so i want you to write a handwritten note to that person. Handwritten note. Okay. Hey, listen, I have a full-time job. It's very flexible. I want to intern for free. I don't need any money. I'm willing to work for free because I want to get some valuable experience and learn more about this industry because I've got plans to do this, this, and this. And if you're willing to meet with me for five minutes so that you can get to know me, I can send you my resume so you can get background references on me. Are you willing to take somebody like me for some free help,

someone who will work hard like they're paid full time? That's a really interesting way to go about this. I would do it in a handwritten note. I would try to do it via email. And I would also leave the same voicemail. So all three things, boom, boom, boom, we're hitting them from three different angles. You still with me, Natalie? Yes.

And listen, enthusiasm and hunger is what we want. And I just kind of gave you a version, a way to write it, a way to say it. That's what we're going to do. Now, in the meantime, while we've done that, we're looking for any type of connection to that building or somebody in that building who could go talk to that person on your behalf go hey I heard great things about this gal Natalie she'd love to just come in she wants to shadow work for free add value any way she can just to get some valuable experience and learn more about the industry and the job that's how you're going to go about this but if we can make a personal connection

to where someone can put a good word in for you, and you've got the email, the handwritten note, and the voicemail, I think that is a really good way to go about it. By the way, add to what I just said, LinkedIn, Instagram. Twitter. Twitter, if you can contact them that way too, after you've already sent the note, after you've sent the email, and after you've left the voicemail. How old are you, Natalie?

24. Okay. What kind of social media do you use at 24? Fill me in. I don't have any. Zero. Today might be the day to start. James, our producer, loves it.

He's a big privacy nerd. But it might be time to make a profile and follow some folks that work there and just engage and just respond. You don't have to be like creepy and be like, hey, can we get a coffee meeting tomorrow? It may just be, hey, that's awesome. Love what you guys do over there. And over time they go, oh, I've noticed that username. And then you go, hey, I noticed you guys are doing this kind of work.

Are there any opportunities there that you guys know about? I would love to just, can you get me in touch with someone? My job here started as an internship, Natalie, and it started because of a tweet. And the tweet turned into a DM, the DM turned into a phone call, that phone call turned into a Zoom, and that turned into a paid internship that turned into a full-time role. And it all just spiraled because I was proactive, I was enthusiastic, and I wouldn't take no for an answer. And I was willing to do any job there to get a foot in the door. And that's George.

You're like 10x more likable than he is. So smart. I mean, George is obnoxious. I mean, imagine George contacting you all the time. But you, Natalie, with a winning personality, it's going to be great. And here's the thing. I'm having fun at George's expense. He's awesome.

And George did it the right way, by the way. Natalie, here's what I'm trying to tell you. Most kids your age will look down their nose at doing an internship without pay. It's all about dignity and I deserve to be paid and all this stuff. No, you're just trying to get in. So I just want to applaud you, your hunger and your desire to step into this. I think you're going to be surprised at how easy this is going to turn out for you to get this. What kind of work are you doing now and what's the new one you're looking to jump into? I do this weird job now that's not really a job anywhere else,

which is, it's really fun, but I just, I worry if something happens to this company, I would have to start at the very bottom somewhere. We do like surgical planning, but I want to get into medical device design. Cool. So that's the nature of the company, that's what they do, that you want to intern at? Yes. Yes. They're a real medical device company. One other thing I want to give you is hold the word intern loosely. Because some people may hear that and go, well, we don't have an actual official internship situation. If you just go, look, I want to come in and work for free and help out and just kind of get in and learn. Kind of just shadow for a day. Yeah, shadow, help out, work.

I'll do it. I just really want to learn more about this industry. That is so attractive and so rare. I think it's going to work for you. that help you i hope it did she's on hold now oh you already put oh she's with god thank you but uh ken for a lot of folks that are out there radio guns especially yes especially those that are younger they're kind of getting out of school going all right i got the piece of paper where's my job where's my six-figure salary no one's knocking on my door. And then you get someone like Natalie who goes, I'm willing to do whatever it takes. I agree. And we're great at teaching kids the textbooks, but we don't actually teach

them how to go about getting the job. Well, you're right. We've lost the art of just connecting with people and say, hey, would you be willing to give me a shot? That's really attractive, you know? And it beats your application in a digital pile somewhere with some algorithm. Learning to fly, but I ain't got wings. There you go. Perfect bump as we end this segment. Good wisdom there, Ken. Thank you, Natalie, for the call. This is The Ramsey Show. Give us a call, 888-825-5225. We'll be right back. Listen, we know a lot of you are scared right now between inflation and debt payments. You feel like you're drowning and you're terrified you won't have enough to take care of your family. But you shouldn't have to live in fear.

But you have to get to the point where you say, I've had it. And then decide that you are ready to make in fear. But you have to get to the point where you say, I've had it, and then decide that you are ready to make a change. Because you can't keep doing the same things with money and expect different results. And that means it's time to try out something different, a different plan. Financial Peace University. This is the course that will teach you our step-by-step plan to beat debt, save for emergencies, and build wealth. It worked for me and it's worked for 10 million people. And right now we're offering it at the lowest price ever. So stop living in fear. You can take control of your money with Financial Peace University. Get started right now. Go to

ramseysolutions.com slash FPU. That's ramseysolutions.com slash FPU. I'm George Campbell, joined by Ken Coleman this hour. Phone lines are open, 888-825-5225. Ben joins us in Des Moines. Ben, welcome to the show. Good afternoon. Thanks for having me on. Sure. How can we help? So I got a question for you guys. I started listening a couple months ago. It took me about 10 years to get out the program and realize that it was actually legit.

And now I'm in baby step number two and almost gets all intense. I'm hoping to do a lifelong dream of mine of it's a career change to be a helicopter pilot. That's a dream. And I know it's very far fetched. But I'm wondering if there's any, like, where do I put it in the baby steps? Do I start school, you know, somewhere after being completely debt-free? Because I know it's really, really expensive to do. How expensive is it?

I'm looking at about $120,000, and I want to cash flow it or get scholarships if possible. $120,000? I mean, I'm in the 40s, but there's only so much. Okay. $120,000 to get that particular helicopter? I mean, how specific is this? That's a rough estimate for, again, the private pilot's license, the commercial and instrument ratings, so you can actually get paid to do it.

Right. And there's not a way to kind of, and forgive the ignorance here but i is there not a way to get in on a lower level some type of helicopter and work your way up or is it just all or nothing you can't you can't fly until you get to a certain to the 120 000 well i looked at my local airport around here and uh for 20 000 you can get your private pilot license and then you can fly people for free and build up your hours. Eventually, you need to get more, pay more to get your instrument rating so you can fly in adverse weather conditions, lower visibility. And commercial rating is to get, be able to get paid for it. So it's kind of a progression.

$120,000 would get me all that to where I can actually be employable. How long would it take you to save up? If you're going to cash flow it, how long is it going to take you to get to that kind of cash flow situation? I'm not 100% sure. My debt-free date, according to the app, is September of 24. And then I guess the app doesn't really project out from there, unless I'm using it wrong. How much debt do you have?

For my home equity loan and my car is all I have, and that would be $49,000. Okay. What's the car worth? About $5,000. Okay, what's the car worth? About $5,000. What do you owe on it? Eight. And then the home equity loan is the rest? Yep.

I traded in a Chevy Silverado to get a lot of it down, so thanks. Good, okay. So what's your income right now? Somewhere around $60,000. And what do you do? I'm a local trucker. A local what? A local truck driver.

Okay. Are you married, family? What's going on there? Yes. I got an 11-year-old daughter and a wife that works for the schools. And total household income is $60,000? Mine is $60,000. Hers brings household income is 60? Mine is 60. Hers brings it up to about 75. What could you do in the short term to maybe get a $20,000, $25,000, $30,000 raise? Well, that's why I said I'm almost gazelle intense

because I could go over the road and make some more money, but I'm worried about how that would affect the family. Yeah, I get that. I get that. But again. Could you do it for a season? A few months? Say that again?

Could you do it for a few months? I'm not sure. I think that's an interesting conversation to have with your wife. I mean, if you could do it even for a year, right, and it were to fast forward paying off that debt, now you're going to be able to stockpile some cash and truly cash flow your way through um this helicopter journey i i first of all you can do it it just depends on how intense you want to be like you can pay off the debt and start doing the you know a portion of the twenty thousand dollar local thing

just to kind of go ahead and get that done you're not doing it all at once but you are getting at least some of that experience and you could cash flow if you went out there and work some overtime or whatever and you kept paying off the debt but then you had you know you you can do this you just have to decide how long you're willing to wait okay um Would it be advisable to wait till after baby step three? I mean, it's going to free up your income so you can cash flow it faster. So what Ken's saying is you could split the difference and start paying off the debt and cash flow, you know, a semester of the training or whatever that looks like and get started. I'm saying walk our baby steps out. So the baby steps are the baby steps.

You're going to pay the debt off, and you're going to get to three to six months in baby step three. But what I'm saying is with a little bit of extra effort, you can at least incrementally move your way down the line and cash flow that so that once you're done with baby step three, you don't have as much to do or as much to save. Is your wife working full-time? Yes, she is.

And she's making $15,000 a year? Yeah, it's not very good. See, there's another area. I mean, what would she have to do or what could she do where she was making three times that amount? I've tried to work with her again in a new career, but she's had a lot of jobs where she didn't love her job, and she finally loves her job, so she's pretty hesitant to make a move. So what is she doing at the schools? She works with severely disabled, physically and mentally disabled kids.

And she's looked at all the jobs in the area to see what the options are and what they pay? Yep, the other school districts are similar. And it's paying basically, it sounds like it's minimum wage. Yeah, it's pretty bad. That's a tough one because I know she's comfortable, and that's based on her experience. But, I mean, you guys, listen, this is an income play. This is just increasing your income. And the quicker you increase the income,

the quicker you get through the debt and the quicker you get up in the air. So I tend to be a guy who's always going to prescribe going after it as hard as you can and getting through it. And your daughter's 11. You've been around. It's you know, your daughter's 11, you know. Yes. You know, you've been around.

It's not like you're going to disappear, but if she sees her dad take on a goal and sacrifice and hustle and grind, I mean, that's only going to be a great object lesson for her. How old are you, Ben? I am 41. 41. Oh, I would definitely. My daughter has a Ramsey Junior program, so she's really on board with that. When do you want to be flying a helicopter?

45, 50? Is this like an encore career? Yeah, he wants to be up there tonight. And so what are you willing to do if you're saying, I want to do this today? Because if that's true, then I'm going to have a fire under my butt, and I'm going to be working 80 hours a week. And so I'm not worried about how driving over the road is going to affect my family for a season if that means I'm going to get to this dream a whole lot faster. Because 10 years from now, this is still a dream. You're going to be really frustrated beating yourself up.

Yes. Yeah. And you've probably already had this dream long before this. Since kindergarten. Since kindergarten. Since kindergarten. And so for 41 years, you've been batting this around, but we got to stop playing the games. We got to stop going into debt because it's slowing us down. It's delaying us from the dream.

So I think you need to have a little dream date with your wife and go, what are we willing to do to make this dream happen? Are you willing to switch careers? Are you okay then, if you're not willing, for me to do over the road so that we can clean up this debt faster? Okay. And get her on board with the vision. Because until then, it's going to be, I don't think I want you on the road. But we don't make enough money.

We're just going to be sitting in $50,000 of debt. And that's just not a future that I'm okay with. I don't think you are either. So do whatever it takes. Follow Ken's advice. And I hope you call us back and go, I got the helicopter license. That would make Ken's soul just scream with joy. I wouldn't mind a ride in the old whirlybird. I'm too scared. Those things frighten me, but I'm happy for you, Ben. Good luck, man. This is The Ramsey Show. Let's go. Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 14, 23.

All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. Thomas Jefferson once said, I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. TJ. You love a good TJ quote. I love me some Thomas Jefferson quotes. You think anyone called him TJ? No, nobody called him TJ.

Well, you know what? That begs a very interesting question. Back in the day, they knew their names and they were writing. Would someone go, hey, man, how you doing, TJ? Like, did GW see him in Philadelphia and go, what's up, TJ? I doubt they talk like bros. So that one throws me off the center of the trail on that one. All right.

Last segment of the hour. You can still give us a call, 888-825-5225. Tish joins us in Houston. Tish, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. I'm a new listener. We love new listeners. Thank you for loving me. I'm a new listener. We love new listeners. Thank you for loving me. I'm so glad you guys took my call.

How can we help? My situation is this. I'm in my early 50s. I have less than $50,000 in retirement. I took on a second job, so I have two full-time jobs to try and catch up on my retirement, and I'm kind of scared out of my mind. What's scaring you? I don't have a plan. I don't really have a strategy to get me caught up. I mean, I've taken on a second job, but I don't know what to do now. Like, what do I do?

What's your total income? The second job now, I'm at $120,000. Love it. And where are you investing, if at all? So I only do it through my job. I just connected to a new investor, well, financial advisor, and he's only investing like $7,000 into IRA for me. And that's pretty much it. I'm really new at investing. I don't know what to do, but I need to do something. Was this one of our SmartVestor pros, or did you find one outside of that? No. I'm a new listener. I did not know better. Okay. Well, hey, the good news is it's not too late. So I would reach out to one of our SmartVestor pros, and here's why. They can actually educate you and help you feel confident in what you're investing in

instead of going, hey, I gave this guy some money, and I think he's investing it into an IRA. I want you to fully understand what we're doing. Okay. Because you don't know what that's invested in because the IRA is just a shell. I don't. I don't even know how to read the statement. Well, that's where we're going to start. Because if you're following our baby steps, have you heard about those?

Yes, I'm on baby step one, but I was already saving in case something happened, so I kind of skipped around. Because when I found you guys, I was already in the process of saving just in case something happened, which is step three. Well, how much debt do you have? That's the thing. I only have my car. And since I found you, I'm going to go ahead and pay the car off with the step three. Okay. So how much money do you have in the bank? And then I have a mortgage. So right now I have about $33,000.

$33,000 in the bank. And what's on the car loan? Just $10,000. Okay33,000 in the bank, and what's on the car loan? Just $10,000. Okay. We're paying that off today. Yeah. So that leaves you with $23,000, which is going to be your fully funded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. Mm-hmm.

And now we're Zooming, because now you freed up that payment, right? What's the car payment? It was only like $340, something like that. Only? Do you know what $340 invested every month could do for you? No, I don't. Paint the picture, George. So you're going to use the power of compound interest. You said you're in your 50s, which means you could live another 30 years easily. Now think about 30 years of compound growth on thousands and thousands of dollars a year. So let's say you had 10% return on $100,000. How much is that?

10 grand? 10% return, 10. Now you have 110. The next year, 10% return, guess how much you have? $11,000. And you see how compound interest starts to work for you? Yeah. So that's what's going to get you excited over the next many years as you begin to catch up on this retirement. The good news is you're willing to work for it, aren't you? You're working two full-time jobs in your 50s. Yeah, I'm about to do another seasonal one. Yeah, I'm ready.

I love it. Well, use the fear to fuel you to doing this stuff for the next 10 years so that you can retire with dignity with no house payment in the world, no debt. How would that feel? That would feel amazing. I love it. That would feel so amazing. Jump on to RamseySolutions.com, click on Ramsey Recommends,

and get in touch with one of our SmartVestor pros, and they can guide you through this process and pay off that car today. Do not wait. Don't let this debt sit around while you're burning $340 a month that could go to your future. Thanks for the call, Tish. All right, Claudia is going to end us off here in Miami, Florida. Claudia, welcome to the show. Thank you.

Thank you for taking my call. Sure. What's going on? My question is, should I buy instead of rent? I have a home already paid. You have a paid-for house. Yes. And you're going to buy another house?

Well, I transferred to Miami from Georgia. So I had to come because of my job, and now I had to rent to be able to work. Okay, so you have the paid-for houses in Georgia? Yes. Okay, and why are you hanging on to it? My kids live in it. They're going to school. They go to college. Both of my kids are going to college,

so instead of paying a dorm or paying an apartment, they can stay in the house. Okay. That's a good plan. And you're wondering, should I buy another house in Florida here versus rent? Yes. Do you plan on staying in Miami long-term? I would say maybe five years, maybe less. How much money do you have? In the bank, $28,000. Okay. Does that include your emergency fund? Yes. Okay. And you're debt-free? Yes. Okay. So right now I would rent because we need to save up a down payment if we're going to purchase a home. Okay. So that would be the next step. Can you rent for a year or two and then make a decision and just stack up cash? Yes, I can. Yeah, I would

do that, Claudia. I just want to bring in another component to what George is giving you here. And that is that you really don't know what's going to happen next year, two years from now, three years from now, four years from now, five years from now. And we know you're not going to be in Miami long term. We do know that, correct? Well, right now, I'm not really sure. I moved and I really love my job. I love what I'm doing. and I'm not really sure if this is where I'm going to stay or am I going to move back. So whenever we are uncertain, renting is always the best option because of that last word. Rent allows you options. Flexibility. Flexibility. Okay. Okay. Because you're in good financial position, right? You got a paid for home back

in Georgia. Once the kids are out of school, that's a tremendous asset for you. If you want to go back to it to live in, there's that. If you end up loving Miami, then you go, okay, maybe I do want to buy here. Well, renting until you have the right down payment is the right play anyway. So I just think renting is the smart decision here. I don't think a lot of people tell folks like you that renting can be the best decision. And in this case, it is the best decision because it gives you flexibility. What's the house worth in Georgia? The house is probably $400,000.

And the kids will be there for the next four years? Yes. Okay. So four years from now, what if you rented for four years, and then the kids are out, and you can go, all right, I love it here. I think I'm going to stay. Let me go ahead and sell the house in Georgia, and I can use all of that money to buy something in Miami on top of the pile of cash I've saved up for four years. Sounds good.

That would give me some freedom. That would. Instead of, now I've got a mortgage on this Miami home, plus I don't know what I'm going to do with this Georgia home that's just sitting there and I'm paying property taxes and homeowner's insurance on it. So I think that might be the play, is let's get the kids through college, let's rent,

let's save up a huge pile of cash, and we can make a decision down the road. Sounds good. Thanks so much for the call. Way to go, Claudia. All right, thank you. It's a great place to be. George, have you been to Miami?

Paid for in-house. You know, my wife is a huge fan. I've been through it. I don't know that I've experienced it. I could see you walking on South Beach with like white socks and the black flip-flops. I'm pretty sure I would get arrested for just being so pale that I'm a nuisance to the public. Yeah, there's like solar flares going on. Everyone is tan there. Yeah. It's a great place. I love me some Miami. I would love to go. I want to get just the food there. Yeah. It's a great place. I love me some Miami. I would love to go. I want to get just the food there. Oh, food.

Give me some of that Cuban food. Some great Cuban fare. Yeah. Love me some Miami food. Well, now I'm hungry. And that puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. My thanks to Ken Coleman, my co-pilot, all the folks in the booth, and you, America. We appreciate you listening. We'll be back with you before you know it.

Until then, spend wisely, save intentionally, and give generously. Do you love a good day, Brandt? Want to see the latest Ramsey Show videos going viral? Check out your favorite moments from The Ramsey Show on YouTube. Go watch and subscribe to The Ramsey Show channel on YouTube.