The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Go Into Debt To Start a Business? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: February 21, 2022

Dave Ramsey & Dr. John Delony discuss: Do you always have to sell your car to pay off debt? Can you require a will beneficiary to take FPU? What to do when you feel stuck in a toxic marriage, Paying off Parent Plus loans, Why you should never go into debt to start a business. 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 

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey personality, best-selling author, is my co-host today as we talk about your relationships, your mental health, your boundaries, your career, your work, and your money. It's a free call at 888-825-5225. Anthony's with us in Phoenix. Hi, Anthony. How are you? Good, Dave. How are you doing? Better than I deserve. What's up? So I was calling today to get some advice on whether or not I should sell my truck to get out of debt faster. So to tell you a little bit about the truck, you might, Dave, I think, personally understand the feelings should sell the truck to get out of debt faster

or if I should pay it off, which by my calculations, I should be able to do within the next year. What do you owe on it? I owe 55. And what's your household income? Household income is 150 a year. Okay. What's the other car? Are you married? I'm not. Okay. Single guy making making 150 the only vehicle you

own and and is apparently it's one of the few debts you have right okay our rule of thumb is if you have a vehicle that's in question if it is that all of your vehicles added together anything with car with with wheels and motors or motors added together should be less than half your annual income, and you should be able to be debt-free, not counting your house, within two years of the time you start your debt snowball. If it's going to take longer than that and it's the car's fault, or if the car is more than cars or boats or sea-doos or their sisters are more than half the annual income, then we start paring off the junk that has motors and wheels and so forth. So your car is less than half your annual income.

You can be debt-free in under two years. There's no reason to sell it. Okay. That does not mean I would go into debt to buy it originally, but now that you find yourself there, get it paid off. Or, Anthony, I've got a deal for you. I have an 06 Tundra i'll trade you straight up that's just because i love you that's why he's here he's here he's here to help you anthony

yeah he got up this morning and said i'm here for the people and the fans of the show and i really john that's big-hearted of you i appreciate you noticing that. I have a huge heart. People have gotten themselves in hard situations. You have missed the sarcasm font on that email, brother. Way to go, Anthony. Yeah, keep the truck, baby. Keep the truck. Danny's in Syracuse. Hi, Danny.

Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. I've enjoyed your practical advice over the past few years, and now I would like a little bit of your insight into comprising a will. Okay. Specifically, a will basically has several beneficiaries. Most of them, or all of them, rather, are financially responsible except for one. Very irresponsible.

The only thing they've learned is to use a credit card and have dad come in and pay it. That's a recipe for collecting the inheritance and starting the fast clock from $700,000 that broke. So, I've heard you suggest it on your show about financial peace or diversity as a requirement. How can that be done, and specifically with the entire course? Is there like a practical way on having it be an ongoing participation, making that a requirement? Well, yeah, you can just take them out of the will until they behave. Yeah, you sound like you have to leave them in there. Why do you have to leave them in there?

You don't. No, I don't. Okay, let's start with this. Let's start with this. There you go. Here's the thing. An, let's start with this. Let's start with this. There you go. Here's the thing. An inheritance is not an entitlement. You are not entitled to an inheritance.

You are not obligated morally, ethically, biblically of faith, and to mismanage your life, meaning the steward, the management of your life, including your money, is, you know, you're supposed to be managing your life for God. You're managing your life as Christians. We're going to manage God's money, and if you can't manage God's money, I'm duty-bound to not give it to you, to mismanage from my perspective as a steward, number one. But number two, it's not going to be a blessing to this person.

It's going to bring them harm, because when you get money, it magnifies the good and the bad in your life. So it's not about Financial Peace University, and it's not about being a control freak. It's about putting your arm around this child and saying, gosh, I don't want to hurt you. I love you too much to hurt you. And so I'll walk with you as you learn these skills that you've yet to learn. But until you learn them, I'm not going to be able to leave you anything. You're opting out. You're choosing by your misbehavior to not be in the will. Which I agree with. It's unfortunate it's not my child. I guess the heartstrings are pulling a little bit because he has some severe health issues

and will need some good insurance. And once his parents die, he's not going to get anything. This is a nephew, my nephew. His parents are just as irresponsible as him financially. How old is he? 22. Have you taken him out? Did you all two just talk for a while?

Tried. Let me put it that way. Okay. What did that sound like? What did that sound like? Well, when you got the parents on the other end, I mean, they'll agree with everything you say, but when you got the parents on the other end just, you know,

handing cash like it grows on trees, it's a hard battle to win. Who's convinced you that this is your problem to solve? Why have you taken this on? You've inserted yourself into their family. Do you feel guilty that you've made a lot of money? No, not at all.

Something about the situation, you've inserted yourself into your brother or your sister's family and taken it upon yourself that it's your responsibility to save their errant child i want to free you from that man yeah it's not your it's not on your list of things to do uh you know what i would do if it was my nephew and i wanted to leave him money to help him because he has health problems, but I think he has bigger problems than health problems. Yeah, you're right. I think he's got character issues that supersede his health problems and may actually add to them.

I don't know what his health problems are, but it may make them worse or aggravate or exasperate the situation or whatever it is. But I'm just going to sit down with him and I'm going to go hey you're i'm your old ugly rich uncle you ever heard the parable the rich uncle i'm him i'm the guy you know that's me and so y'all everybody wants one well you got one and so uh if you want i i would i would love to be a blessing in your life but i cannot do that until you learn to behave with money. If you'll walk along, if you'll let me walk along beside you, I'll kick your little butt and I will hug you into learning how to do this life thing and money thing right. But if you don't not say it, I'm not care about what you say.

If you don't do it, then I can't leave you money in the will. But I'd like to. I'd like to be the guy that coaches you up and takes you through this and puts you in Financial Peace University, and you and I talk about it, and I see the fruit in your life. But you being in the will is dependent on that. You can opt out of this by your behavior. You can opt into this with your behavior. It'll be your choice.

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It just doesn't get any easier. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. It really is time to get this done. Thank you. Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. The housing market is hot, hot, hot. So your house could be worth a lot more today than it was when you bought it and that means your old insurance policy might not give you enough coverage anymore and what's the point of paying for insurance that won't cover the cost of repair

rebuild your home yeah you've got a stated amount on your insurance policy it may cover a little bit more than that but if your house is suddenly worth 700 000 and your policy is 500 000 you is screwed if it burns so you've got to keep your policies updated and you have to get them raised and so that they can raise the prices on them that's how they do it some automatically raise your coverage a little bit but most of them don't so you need to get with one of our endorsed local providers and shop your insurance. They will shop around among a bazillion companies, get you the best possible deal.

This is why we call them Ramsey Trusted. They're independent insurance brokers, and they'll get you a deal. Go to RamseySolutions.com to talk with a trusted home insurance pro in your area. Home insurance ELP, endorsed local provider. That's Ramsey Trusted. Ramseysolutions.com slash home. Our question of the day comes from Blinds.com. Find out for yourself why Blinds.com is the number one online retailer of custom window coverings.

You get free samples, free shipping, new promos they run every month. You'll save even more. Use the promo code Ramsey to get the best deal. Today's question comes from John in California. John writes, my wife and I are approaching 60 and have been married for 30 years. She's had a gambling problem since we got married, and it's getting progressively worse. She keeps promising to quit, but every month spends thousands of dollars on her hobby. Hobby?

I'm just going to underline that one mark mark that number yeah all right she has a job but never uses her income toward our family expenses to add to the mess we had a daughter that i believe to be mine until she had a dna test that showed we are not related so in a nutshell our marriage is a long-term sham at this point i have zero interest in finding a different wife, so I see two possible paths. I'll go ahead and mark that one. We can either divorce and split our net worth with me possibly getting strapped with alimony payments for the rest of my life, or I can put up with her nonsense of slowly bleeding down our savings and investments. From a practical point

of view, it may be quote-unquote unquote cheaper to keep her but i'd still have to deal with the mental mess what would you do in my situation john you are a freaking tragedy wow it's like a country song it's like two country songs and you know i love how you just completely painted yourself into the corner and there's only two possible scenarios out of this and both of them you die exactly i mean it's likely i'm gonna starve to death or or have a psychotic break i'm gonna i'm gonna absolutely lose my mind or we're gonna be cheaper to keep her and i'm gonna tolerate you are making an excuse for tolerating this all these years because you had manned up and dealt with the problems but in the last 30 freaking years

every home is built with a door on it john John. Every home. And if somebody's lying to you about whether you're a kid or stealing, good grief. Yeah, you've got to deal with this ASAP. And it's going to get me all fired up. You need to. You need to answer the question. Here's the question. Number one, a gambling problem is an addiction, not a hobby. Stop painting it with this milquetoast, wet toast language. It's the question. Number one, a gambling problem is an addiction, not a hobby. Stop painting it with this milquetoast, wet toast language.

It's an addiction. You're married to someone who is struggling with an addiction. Number two, she has a job, but she never uses income towards her family expenses. That's your fault. Correct. Number three, we have a daughter that I believe to be mine. My marriage is a long-term sham. Maybe.

But if it is, it's because you participated in this long-term sham. Okay? I want you to look in the mirror on this. None of this is new information. Correct. At this point, we have zero interest in finding a different wife. That is completely irrelevant to the point that you are worth more than living in a home where somebody is using you as toilet paper. Stop.

Stop. Nonsense. You don't have to be interested in finding a different wife. You can be interested in preserving your dignity. Taking care of your mental and physical health. And helping your wife not deal with her hobby but possibly get help because she's ill. Should we continue? You can at least, you can divorce.

I'm never going to tell somebody to get divorced, but this is a mess. You've been cheated on. You have been, someone's liquidating your money. You need to go see an attorney and or a marriage counselor today is what I'm saying. It's a mess. Here's the thing. People do stupid butt stuff. Absolutely.

That are harmful to other people. And if it happens to you once, you know, shame on her. Happens to you twice, happens to you three times, happens to you four times, shame on you. Happens to you over 30 years since we got married. Shame on you for not dealing with it. Right. And so Dave Ramsey's shaming someone. Oh, brother.

You dadgum snowflakes um but the uh the deal is this it is your fault that you haven't dealt with this before now correct and so and you act like you're somehow stuck you're not stuck no that's the title of my new book own your past change your future thanks for the underhand pitch here John from California you've got to own what is and what is is you've allowed this you've allowed yourself to participate in somebody else's illness or their addiction or their bad behavior whatever you want to call it for 30 years so tell me john on this what i read is this lady is messed up and he's almost as messed up as she is yes so i have it's hard for me to be hopeful that both of them can come around she has why would she change her life her life is fantastic she gets to do whatever she wants

whatever she wants whenever she wants with no consequence and he just looks at she lives in a rent-free home i just whines and bitches someone else pays their food and whatever it never does anything about it yeah so here's the deal i mean in other words he can come in tomorrow and with the help of a counselor say, we're going to go to a marriage counselor and in order for me to stay, here's what has to happen. An ultimatum. Okay. No more gambling and your money becomes our money.

And, um, any more, anything that looks or smells anything like infidelity and we're done. I mean, these are non-negotiables he could come in tomorrow and then she could say um oh you're right after 30 years of doing it this way i'm just going to stop tomorrow um probably not right but here's what here's what what is going to happen it's not a matter of him saying well then i guess i have to do this what he has to do is draw boundaries and then she gets to choose do i want to be in a relationship with him? Yeah.

And she's already chosen that, by the way. That's for 30 years she has. Yeah. Right. That she doesn't. That's right. So, John, you've got to stop. These are two lazy people.

They're lazy in that they will not deal with their stuff. Yeah. I was going to say intellectually, or they're just so traumatized. Emotionally lazy. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever the reason is, they're not dealing with their stuff, either one of them. Yeah.

Is what I'm seeing. I mean, it's just old boys, good old boys stuff. But anyway, yeah, so that's what you are going to, if you're asking us what to do, we would say you're going to sit down with a therapist and you're going to say, these are the conditions under which I stay. Or you're going to just say, I'm calling it a day. Click out. Peace out.

And get an attorney. under which I stay or you're going to just say I'm calling it a day click out peace out and get an attorney and to presuppose that you're always going to pay alimony you probably are after 30 years but that also is a negotiation and she probably wants free of you and let me say this not tongue-in-cheek John you don't know what going to bed just going to sleep feels like without medication. You don't know what it's like laughing from your guts anymore. You don't know what it's like to be with just a group of buddies and y'all are having a good time. You've lost that sense of joy. And what I would tell you is you're approaching 60. You got 30 years left. You can choose from this point forward to make those 30 years, the best 30 years of your 60, or you can choose to this point forward to make those 30 years the best 30 years of your 60,

or you can choose to... The point is, both paths are going to be hard. Choose which kind of hard you want. You want hard where you slowly drown, or you want hard where you slowly stand back up. You get to pick. Yeah, because it is way past time to stand up, dude. Stand up, John. Way past time to stand up. dude. Stand up, John. Way past time to stand up.

This breaks my heart, Dave. How many couples in the United States live like this? Their roommates? But I mean, people are so funny after they get clear. Their sense of humor comes back. One guy, he said, I got rid of $50,000 worth of debt. And I said, how'd you do that? And he goes, I divorced her.

Oh, gosh. You need better friends. Well, that's funny i know we're not recommending divorce we're not glamorizing it but that's funny this is the ramsey show Dr. John Deloney, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Dylan is with us in Boston. Hi, Dylan. Welcome to the Ramsey Show. Hi, what a pleasure. How are you? Better than I deserve. How can we help? So I am looking for some advice today.

I am about $55,000 in debt. 30K is in student loans. 18 is my and everything. I also have a hundred thousand of parent plus loans in my mom's name that she signed for, for my undergraduate at the time. And I'm looking for a plan to attack it. She doesn't make that much. She makes around 30,000 a year. And I just started a new job making 120,000 a year. You're single yes okay all right so what you're telling me is um you feel for one reason or another either by agreement with your mom or just by the fact that she can't deal with it you feel obligated to pay the parent plus loans not legally but somehow morally or ethically. Yes. Have you all talked about this? From time and time again. I want to say every few months because it's been delayed with the COVID.

And I know the payments are going to start up soon with the interest. So I'm trying to get into a conversation with her about it on our plan for it. That's a lot of dancing around the question. Have you all sat down and said, I would like to take these Parent PLUS loans, and so when they kick back up, I'm going to take the payment over? So I guess not seriously, no. Okay, all right. I'd have that conversation.

That's an important conversation. So your mom is single and makes $30,000 a year. My mom's married, and so her and my dad make probably around $120,000. I'm not sure of the exact number. I know it's over $100,000. Okay. Why is your mom part of this discussion and not your dad? He didn't sign on any of the loans. It was just her and me at the time. No, you didn't sign them.

They're parent plus loans. Yes. So your mother, with or without your father's knowledge, took out $100,000 to send her son to college. That's correct. Parents do that and generally pay it back. I don't know why your mom is saddled with this they have some kind of fractured relationship

is your dad choosing to not help her yes I think we're a little confused here so my dad is my stepfather okay but he's not helping her with her debts she said this is your debt that you deal with okay yes all right well if you're going to take it on it simply goes in your debt snowball and if you're going to sit down with the two of them and have a conversation that says um i make good money i don't want to with this, but I don't see how you're going to be able to deal with this.

I see it sinking you, and so I'm going to take the responsibility for it mathematically. You cannot take the legal responsibility for it. It's not legally ever going to be yours, okay? Okay. But you can just pay it. So you can start paying the payments, make it part of your budget, and then you do your debt snowball, and you list your debts smallest to largest, which means the last debt you're going to get to are these Parent PLUS loans, which is really what it should be.

I throw one important caveat in here. Get the payment information, and you pay the loan servicer directly. Oh, yeah. You're not paying her. Don't pay her. You're not giving her any money. You're just taking pay the loan servicer directly oh yeah yeah you're not paying her you're not giving her any money you're just taking over the loan right you get the payment book or or the payment password to the website whatever it is and you're going to make the payments you're going to set it all up and then when you get down to it you're going to pay extra on it and get it done you're going to pay it last for uh three reasons one is it is not your debt two is it's your largest debt once you morally take it on so it's is it is not your debt.

Two is it's your largest debt once you morally take it on, so it's at the bottom of your debt snowball. Three is if, God forbid, she should pass away, the debt is forgiven. Right. And she would not owe it anymore. Okay. Now I have a follow-up question. Now what is your confidence level in student loan forgiveness?

Zero. Zero, okay. Because I know we're in an income-driven regime. You can tell politicians are lying when their mouth is moving. I like that. Here's the problem, Dylan. The problem with the student loan forgiveness is they haven't shut off the spigot yet. If they continue to make student loans, it's intellectually dishonest to discuss forgiving the ones that are already in place while they continue to make them. So when they quit making them, then we can start having a discussion that it might be happening that they're going to forgive them. But even those people up there, the Island of Misfit Toys called Congress, even those guys are not so dumb that they're going to forgive willy-nilly all these loans everywhere

and then turn around and keep making them and put everybody right back in and then fall semester rules run and everyone's right back in here we go let's go again here we go everybody get in line get up with the trough you piggies you know no it's not that's not that even they are not that stupid so no you just got 120 000 60 000 bucks going into 155 so you got three years two and a half years of beans and rice rice and beans and you can clear every bit of this but you have no life during the next two and a half to three years no insight you know so if you go on a date it's going to be with a frisbee at the park i mean it's not going to be you got you got nothing dude you're going to date up this mess if you're taking this on if you're taking this on then you got to take it on you got to treat it like you know good the good news is you make 120 000 as a young guy yeah you know and so

you got a good size shovel and you can just tear your butt into this thing and that's what you're going to have to do you can knock out your debts pretty quick and then you're going to hit the wall called mom's debts that's right and do not i don't care how bad things get don't date a frisbee don't don't just don't take a frisbee to the park on your date no you said not with a frisbee not as a date i did not say go on a date with the cards and letters from the show john the cards and letters john john oh my gosh don't date if it's been a long day for you with the fair the fair and the frisbee we have other personalities back there if you want to swap them out we got another person our heads are falling

out james says we're gonna do a personality change at the break ready nascar crew here we go we're changing the engine i'm gonna go outside and play with a frisbee uh yeah probably a good idea it's raining shannon's at tulsa oklahoma what's up shannon hey guys nice to talk to you guys today. Looking really forward to getting some advice from you guys on this going into business question that's not a friend or family member. So nice to talk to you guys. I'm 40 years old. Wife and I are high school sweethearts. Been married 21 years. We're in a great spot in our careers. If we simply continue to follow the baby steps, we are well on our way to becoming

baby step millionaires by the time we're retirement age. So it's great. Got a great corporate job, 401k, match, pension, the whole nine. The issue is I feel somewhere down deep that I'm called to do more in life than sit at home each day behind a computer screen for the next 20 years. And I know I've got God-given talents and business and people skills that are not being utilized to their fullest. So I've got a few business opportunities that I'm staring at that are in front of me, but they require borrowing money to take the risk. And I've kind of got a twofold issue in front of me of, you know, number one, do I risk what God laid out for us over these several years

and put us in place to be successful with? How much money do you have? How much money do we have? Yes, sir. We don't have a lot of reserve. We just finished Baby Step 3 not too long ago, and we're good there. There are lots of businesses you can start without going into debt. Okay.

Okay. Should that be maybe the direction i look into yes as a side as a side hustle and remember god will never call you into something that violates your core violates well his own core principle that's probably what's turmoiling inside of me is is it just it seems like have to borrow, and it just goes against. Nope. It even sounds not, you know, it doesn't even sound right in my heart, but every businessman you talk to and successful person, they say,

well, you can't be successful without risk. No, they don't. No, you can't say that ever again because you just talk to one that doesn't believe that, and I've talked to them all the time, every day. I've talked to debt-free guys all over this nation, debt-free gals all over this nation running businesses. So you're overstating that when you, every day. I've talked to debt-free guys all over this nation, debt-free gals all over this nation running businesses. So you're overstating that when you say every businessman. They don't.

Now, maybe you just hadn't talked to the right ones yet. Maybe you're talking to high rollers or something, risk takers. But I'm going to tell you don't borrow money to start a business. This is The Ramsey Show. Let's go. Our scripture of the day, Proverbs 1430, A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. Teddy Roosevelt said, If you could kick the person in the pants that's responsible for your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month.

Well, that's the truth. So, John, there is a ship adrift that has been abandoned that has 438 million dollars in total value of goods it's on fire and it's and so the the crew abandoned ship freighter, and it's full of Volkswagens, Porsches, Audis, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis. And it's burning and drifting through the ocean with no one on it. They all got off and said, peace out. I've had a lot of professional whoopsie-doos in my career, Dave. I can honestly say, whoopsie-do's in my career dave i can honestly say oops wow wow the guy that the

guy that the guy that was having a smoke break next to one of those cars and it just went up on him and he went oh captain that's right captain we got up whoops but the two guys were like hey you won't throw that over that thing and i dare you i dare you 100 like this is um that's unbelievable the vehicles alone are worth over 155 million according to one consultant's estimate now yeah we need to get a consultant to estimate these um there's a dadgum manifest there's a list of exactly what's on there you don't really need to estimate them you can just add up the value it's like you should not you should know what's on there. You don't really need to estimate them. You can just add up the value. You should know what's on there.

But anyway. What a heartbreaking mess. Good grief. They said they got two tugs with firefighting equipment expected to arrive today. Monday morning, which was yesterday for most people. No, that's today. I'm so confused. Start spraying water.

Spray water. Oh, God. Oh oh it's awful you know and i gotta tell you guys ever there's there's a certain number of guys that i'm trying to they're trying to figure out how they can get could i swim out here that's how i can get one of those lamborghinis off of that boat okay i see what it's so so volks going to lose $155 million, and then other car companies. No, Volkswagen's an insurance company. Sure. Yeah.

And then the other ones will lose about $250 million worth of cars. Wow. A lot of cars. Volkswagen spokesman declined to comment because he can't breathe. So our word of caution to America, if you happen to be on Craigslist in a few months and someone offers you a great deal on Lamborghinis. This Lamborghini's on fire. That's right.

Hot prices. This is a hot price. It will melt you. $5,000. You're probably going to want to pass. Yeah. Best deal. Pay no attention to the fact the tires

are burned go back to the corolla section and let the lamborghini section go oh how horrible we're laughing but i just gotta you gotta this breaks my heart i don't know what else you can do i don't know what you do you just laugh lisa's in kansas city hi lisa how are you hi how are you doing dave? Better than I deserve. How can we help? So I've only been listening to you for about a month, maybe two months, and we didn't have any debt, me and my husband. But we did have, like, credit cards that were open. We would just use them, like, here and there to keep them open. So we closed those, and now we're in baby step three, but we were already like saving a retirement 10% for each of us.

And we didn't know if we should stop that while we're in baby step three, because I recently heard on YouTube where you have, while you're in one, two and three, you're supposed to stop your retirement. So I don't know if we should stop doing our 10% because we've kind of just added a percent or two percent there whenever we get raises and now we're at 10% so we didn't know exactly what we should do if we should stop it or just keep it there until we get

through it baby steps three and then you know have you done your first written budget? Yes. When? So we've done that. We've kind of tightened up things. When? Well, last month was our first budget. Okay. So it doesn't work very well the first month, does it? Well, I'm kind of like I already had a budget in my mind. No, that doesn't count.

The first month you do a budget on paper mind no it wasn't really that far the first month you do a budget on paper it generally doesn't work very well yeah how much have you got how much have you got how much are you putting towards your emergency fund in your new budget we're putting uh fourteen hundred dollars a month um towards our emergency fund what is the goal to have in there when it's done when it's properly funded at three to six months of expenses? $17,512 was what it was. Okay. So it's going to take a year.

Yeah. Since I was already, like, saving money, I already have about $6,000. Oh, okay. So that carries the whole time. Okay. Because I'm just, like, a natural saver, so I already have about six thousand oh so i won't trade the whole time because um i'm just like a natural saver so i already have like some money good for you guys well if you're able to easily turn your 401k off and on with your hr team then i would temporarily stop it until i got the emergency phone done if it's if it's a big chore and it's a big problem but the thing is this what you focus on in life any of us what we pay attention to what we focus on is what we get good at

okay real simple if you focus on your marriage you'll get better at your marriage you focus on your kids they'll start behaving you know you start you focus on your career voila you start making more money things go you focus on your money focus on these steps you focus on your career, voila, you start making more money, things go. You focus on your money, focus on these steps, you focus on this emergency fund, that's what's going to happen. And that's the reason we tell folks to temporarily stop their retirement is the power of focus temporarily on a short-term basis, which is what we're talking about here, supersedes the power of math. Okay. The power of math. Okay. The power of saving. I do want you to be a big saver.

Obviously, I want you to become wealthy. I want you to have become a baby steps millionaire. And the way you're going to do that, you're going to fund your 401K, 15% of your income going into that when you don't have any payments and you have a fully funded emergency fund. And then you're going to start your kid's college fund. And then when you find any extra beyond that in your uh budget you're going to throw that on the house and get the house paid off and you'll be a millionaire doing that that's going to work for

you but the power of focus in a culture where we don't pay attention to anything longer than eight seconds if you can learn to focus you will be vastly successful that's right hey and as a as a gift to joining our gang we'll send you a copy of total money makeover it is it's those steps you're cobbling together on youtube it's it lays it out for you one after the other so hang on the line and kelly will get it sent out to you there in kansas city amanda's in houston hey amanda welcome to the ramsey show hey god bless you dave thank. What a privilege and honor to speak to you. Thank you.

You too, darling. How can we help? What should I use a brokerage account to save to buy house cash? I don't use a brokerage account for anything. Okay. Yes, sir. I don't have a brokerage account. Because a brokerage account sounds to me like you're buying and selling single stocks

with your advisor's help, and I don't do that. Okay, I might have the wrong understanding of what a brokerage account is. I have a Roth, and then I have one that's not retirement, and I thought the not retirement one, you can use it for anything. You can, you can, but that would be just in a mutual fund. Yes, sir. Okay, if you, you mean in a mutual fund? Yes, sir, it's a mutual fund. Okay, if you just want to buy a mutual fund and save for a house to pay cash, yes, that's perfectly fine. How long is it going to take you to save up?

Without the investments, it probably would have taken like at least seven years to get like $100,000, $15,000 a year maybe. And if you're investing it in mutual funds you would do it in what five years? Maybe yes sir maybe so I haven't calculated it yet. Okay all right. I actually wanted to know I have the Roth and I think I'm doing too much on the Roth. I do like a thousand dollars total with the non-retirement and the Roth. It makes $1,400 a month including my job retirement and I feel like it's too much a month. I make $6,700 a year, and I feel like that's holding me back from saving as much as I could save just without investing. And you're debt-free. Without saving cash.

You're debt-free. Right, yes, sir. And you have your emergency fund in place of three to six months. Yes, sir. Good. Okay. Then you're at what we call Baby Step 3B to save up for a house. If you can save up for a house to buy the house in three years or less, then you want to do zero retirement for that three

years. People do that sometimes. Sometimes they put some in. Sometimes they put 15% in. But in no case would we have you put more than 15% into retirement of your income. So 0.15 times 67,000 is your number. And in no case do you want more than that going in while you're getting your home bought and paid off. So, hey, thank you for being a listener. That's awesome. John, good show today. Thank you. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. Thanks to the Booth people. They do great folks. The Booth folk. The Booth folk. The Booth people. It's like a new horror movie. The Booth folk. 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 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.