The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Keep Building My Credit Score? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

Rachel Cruze & Kristina Ellis discuss: Maintaining a credit score to be able to borrow money later (don't do it), Alternatives to taking out loans for grad school, Preparing for a big move, Selling a rental property, Saving for college, Deciding to go back to school as an adult, Paying off a house or investing that money. 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

Девочка-пай Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life and your money. So it's a free call anywhere in the country at 888-825-5225. Talking about your life,

your job, your career, your money, your relationships, anything and everything. We are here for you. And I am Ramsey Personality, Rachel Cruz,

hosting today with best-selling author and Ramsey Personality, Christina Ellis. Yay! I'm so excited to be with you. I don't know if we've done a full show. We haven't, it's our first time. With two ladies in a while, since Christy has left.

Christy Wright, who we miss so deeply. So it's fun to have another lady next to me. Have the girl vibes, I love it. Yeah, and obviously we bring kind of a unique take because of that. So if you are a mom out there with questions about kids or jobs or childcare, anything around balancing life and kids, Christine and I are in the thick of it. I have three little ones,

seven and under, and you have two. I have two, one and four years old. One and four years old. We're in the thick of it. We're barely surviving. Let's just say that.

If we make it through three hours, like with trains of thought, you should just be proud of me. Let's be honest. That's a lot. It's a lot. But again, we're taking your calls at 888-825-5225. Okay, we're gonna start out with Daniel in Miami. Hey, Daniel, welcome to the show. Hi, how's it going, ladies? Doing great. How can we help? So I had a question. I'm 22 years old, looking to go into a graduate program in the next year to two years, and I have a pretty good credit score right now. And since I would have to take significant student loans out for the programs I'm thinking of, would it be wise to go

ahead and pay off all my credit cards and lose my credit score knowing that I'm going to have to apply for student loans soon? Well, Daniel, I'll be honest with you. You called the Ramsey Show. So we're not going to be the ones to advise the latter part of your question of taking out a lot of loans for grad school. And actually, Christina talks so much about scholarships, grants, and going to school debt-free,

so I'll let her jump in here in just a second. So yeah, to answer your question, yes, if you pay off all of your debt and you don't have any debt, it takes about anywhere from 9 to 18 months for your credit score. It's going to keep going down, down, down, down, down until it hits undetermined because the way your credit score is mathematically calculated is all around debt. And if you don't have debt, they can't calculate a score. So, yeah, the way our stance, my stance, is that the indication that you are winning with money is not an indication of the credit score and how high it is and what you do with it. It's a non-negotiable for me just to not even think about it and worry about it

because being out of debt is the first priority. So, Christina, jump in here and talk to Daniel because grad school, it's a real thing because if you have a want or even college degree, right, undergrad even, a lot of people listening, it's a dream of theirs or for their kids and they feel like the only way they can do this is through student loans. Yeah, we hear so many stories where people are coming in with student loans and grad school is largely responsible for the massive debt. So it is really important to kind of talk through, especially with grad school, because I feel like it's such a vulnerable space for people to go into debt. Daniel, what are you thinking about doing in grad school? So it would either be medical school or pharmacy school.

Okay. And what's your undergrad degree in? It's in biology. Okay. Well, we talked to a lot of people. I feel like medical school is kind of the like hard question we get a lot of times where people, it's a little bit harder to pay for med school debt-free, but we do have a lot of people who come through here who do it. You just have to be really strategic. So I would encourage you to kind of like slow down a little bit and really think through and do the research on what are your options out there. We often talk about the MD-PhD program, which is a great option for going debt-free. It's pretty competitive, which is often kind of the flip side of that. But there's also other options. You could potentially, you know, go into the military and go that route. I know

that's a big decision. You could go to a cheaper school. You could slow the pace down a little bit and pay as you go, which I know is challenging, but I would encourage you to kind of explore other options. I can kind of hear in your voice that the assumption is that you have to go into debt and that's kind of been your journey so far. But just even today, if you can take a pause and think through what would it look like for me to go debt free and see if you can shift your mind to even consider the possibility of everything you do moving forward when it comes to college is going to be done without debt. And what's amazing with that, Christina, is and again, it's a total mindset shift, right? Because like you said, it is a people just kind of yield into higher education with loans.

Like that's the pathway you go and there's no other options. And so when you just have this absolute in your mind that we're absolutely not going into debt for this, that's not an option. So now what do I do? What are my other options? Right. Because people will back you in the corner and say, well, I either have to take out loans or I can't go. I'm like, no, there's options B, C, D, E over here if you look, but people don't take the time and the energy to look at all those other options because it is easy to sign a student loan, to put your name, put a signature down and worry about that later when you feel like, oh, we're going to be making good money and it's all justified in your head. Well, and especially with med school, I feel like that's kind of the spot that gets really overwhelming because you see all these doctors with huge student loan debt. And that's the thing is we interviewed somebody in our documentary, Borrowed Future, where

they had a million dollars in student loan debt. So it's like, yes, they got a med degree. Yes, you know, I'm sure they're happy to be a doctor ultimately, but they're literally crying in the documentary because they have crippling amounts of debt. So med school, it's great. Right. But if it's going to equal an extremely stressful long-term outcome, I mean, even pumping the brakes on that and kind of going, is med school right for me?

If it's going to cost a lot of debt, you know, maybe I could be a nurse practitioner. Maybe there's another option in a medical sphere that I want to do debt-free. Yes. And just to even just harp on that too, Christina, because I'm like, you know, when you don't have debt and you're debt free or you choose to live a life without debt there are there are so many options out there to look at and when you think about debt it's like this is my one way it's a one-way tunnel and the outcome is usually what we end up seeing on this show often is not good like that one-way tunnel usually ends up being a lot of stress Dr. John Deloney even talks about like your body,

that book, Your Body Keeps the Score, the amount of stress that you harbor and like the amount of anxiety and consumer debt has the graph has been consistent year after year after year, which is fascinating. But what it does to your relationships, your mind, just the ability to have something clear because you don't owe anyone anything,

if that makes sense. So options give you power. They give you power. Either options of choosing not to take on student loans and look at other options. And then again, when you don't have debt, you have the freedom to make decisions. You're not stuck in a job you hate to pay bills.

You know, you're not stuck in this life. There really is this level of freedom where you're like, I can have creativity and think through what do I want to do because I can, because I don't owe anyone anything. Absolutely. Yeah. That's such a good feeling. And I think that there's also this myth around higher education that like, I'm going to get this great income. So no matter how much debt I have to take out, it's going to all pay off. And I'm going to have this great job and this great paying degree. I mean, I even heard that whenever I was visiting schools, they're like, you know,

this is how much it's going to cost. But don't worry. Don't worry. Like you're going to have a great job afterwards and you're going to be able to pay for it. It's no big deal. And so that's not true. Like we've seen people with great jobs with student loans that are still struggling and feel like they're suffocating. So that's just kind of separating that out and being like, even though you may get a great salary, debt can still be very stressful and suffocating. Very much so. Very much so. I'm Rachel Cruz.

Christina Ellis hosting today with me at 888-825-5225. Give us a call. We are answering your questions. This is The Ramsey Show. Teksting av Nicolai Winther welcome back to the ramsey show i'm ramsey personality rachel cruz hosting today with ramsey personality best-selling author christina ellis and we are taking your calls at 888-825-5225. And we're answering anything and everything. So whether it's your career, your money, your relationships, your life, give us a call.

And yeah, we'll chat about it, have a conversation, hopefully help guide you with any question that you have in your life. So again, give us a call, 888-825-5225. And we have a full lobby today, Christina, out of the glass right there. A bunch of people came in. And your husband!

Yeah! I just saw him back there. Biggest fan. Love it. So fun. But just a reminder that you can visit us here right outside of Nashville in Franklin, Tennessee at Ramsey Headquarters. And you can visit us here right outside of Nashville in Franklin, Tennessee at Ramsey Headquarters. And you can get cookies, you can get coffee, cappuccinos, lots of Americanos.

They have all the fancy stuff, Christina. And I just found out like two weeks ago, you get a free coffee mug. I just found that out too. Yeah. So make sure you get your free coffee mug, everyone out there in the lobby. So that's a fun gift. So yeah, be sure to come and visit us live. And then of course, the debt free stage is here where we get to take calls live all the time of families and people that pay off all of their debts. All right, up next, let's go to Giancarlo in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Hi, Giancarlo. Welcome to the show. Hi, how arelo. Welcome to the show. Hi. How are you ladies doing?

We're doing great. How are you doing in Puerto Rico? We don't have many international calls, so I appreciate that. Yeah, you're welcome. You're welcome. So I'm calling because I have a potential job opportunity coming up towards the end of the year over in the States. And then my current situation is I have around $24K in debt, but the huge majority of that is on the States. And then like my current situation is I have around 24K in debt, but the huge majority of that is on the car. 18,000 of those is in the car. And I'm currently working

on getting current in all of my bills, which I should be done with within the next month. Now, my question is during the month of November and December, should I save up and plan just in case this move does happen? And then if it falls through, I just dump that into baby step number two? Or should I continue with the baby steps and only start saving up if the opportunity comes up? So if the opportunity comes up, would you be moving in January? I'll be moving somewhere around that timeframe. Around that timeframe. The process should be around six weeks.

Yeah. Okay. So it'll be a pretty quick turnaround for you. Do you have any other money saved besides Baby Step 1? No, I do not. Okay. No, that's great. I mean, honestly, Giancarlo, we tell people to pause baby step two with very,

you know, very small circumstances in a sense, like they're like not a lot of times do we say to pause it. So big life change, though, is always a little bit of an asterisk. So, you know, if you're expecting a baby for anyone listening, we always say during pregnancy to pause baby step two, pile up some money, make sure everything's good. Even if you have to replace a car because maybe you sold your car and you're having to get a new one to get through the debt snowball quickly, we say you can pause for a short period of time to save up to move on to that. And then another one in this category, Giancarlo, as I would say, if you have a big transition, like a move coming and you know it's there and you don't have the funds to be able to do that properly, but you know, like you said,

that there's a good chance it's going to happen. I would be okay with you pausing baby step two for 60 days and see what happens in January. And just like you said, you're still gazelle intense, right? You're still sacrificing, you're putting money aside, but you're putting cash aside. So if that move happens, you can do that debt-free and move. But if it doesn't, then just like you said, throw it at baby step two, which will be a great motivator still. So not losing the motivation of it, but where the funds

are specifically going. I'm okay if you pause that for 60 days and wait to see if this move, because I want you to have some cash on hand if that's the case. Yeah, that's great. It's always good to have that extra cushion when you're making that big change. I am kind of curious, too, where are you guys at in the negotiation process? Have you all talked about the possibility of relocation expenses? Because with such a big move, there's a chance the company could offer some help in that transition. Yeah, so they did say that there was some some relocation help but i do not know the details but the main reason why we didn't go through that at the moment was because um of what i

told you i'm currently trying to catch up on current and i was explaining my situation so what they said is hey um like they're pretty much going to give me these couple of months to see and then they're going to touch base with me in December to see how I'm doing and see if I get all of that sorted out. Because by the time that I have this call, I needed to catch up in around 1.5K in bills. So by the time that they call, I should be already caught up and comfortable. Yeah. And that's great because that's what we encourage you to do even before you start paying extra in your debt is you want to get current on all of your bills. So that's going to be number one, regardless of move or not, right? That you're going to be catching up and be caught up on all your bills. And then beyond that is saving that

money. So what kind of job are you looking at? So I'm looking at a sales job. Yeah, I'm looking at a sales job. The main reason why I'm thinking of a career change is because I've been working as a server and, you know, for me, it's been going great for the past three to three years. My average income has been anywhere between three to four K and as a 25 year old in Puerto Rico where the minimum wage is $8.50 an hour, it's great. But there's also the potential chance that around that same time, me and my girlfriend might get engaged. We're about to start going for premarital counseling. And if that's the case, you know, I'm thinking of,

I want to start switching to something that could be a career, you know, thinking of growth for my family specifically. That's amazing. Well, congratulations. That's very exciting. You have a lot of things in flight, it sounds like, Giancarlo. Yeah. That's great. Well, congratulations. That's very exciting. You have a lot of things in flight, it sounds like, Giancarlo. Yeah. That's great.

Well, awesome. Thanks for giving us a call. But that's exactly what I would do. Make sure you're caught up. And obviously, I think the company wants to make sure that you're in a stable place financially, especially if you're going to be in sales and very high commission. They probably want to make sure you're okay and you're not going to be drowning in payments and bills. It's awesome that you're doing all this, too, before you get married.

Like the fact that you're taking the time now, getting caught up, wanting to pay off your debt, wanting to figure out this career stuff. That's just going to build such a foundation for your marriage. So good job on, you know, really digging into this and getting intentional right now. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for the call. All right. Up next, we have Dave in Cleveland. Hey, Dave, welcome to the show. Thank you for taking my call. I appreciate it. Absolutely.

How can we help? Just have a question about a way that I should proceed with an investment that I have in terms of a house. I have a house in another state. I'm currently living in Cleveland. Do have a mortgage on this property. It's about 345K right now. And the other house is, it's going to be paid off in about five years. We ended up renting that out. We moved just about two years ago. So obviously it has appreciated in value significantly. Oh, about 65 left on it. And I'm guessing it's probably ballpark. Maybe you work about 400 right now. And my question is with how the stock market has declined so significantly,

I kind of expect that over the next couple of years to recoup and would like to consider selling the other house and putting the money into some mutual funds that may increase more than the rental that I could get out of the house. Yeah, I would agree with that assessment. I love real estate. I come from a family that loves real estate, so I'm not against rental properties. The only thing I don't care about this situation is that you're a long distance landlord. Is that correct? Yes, I have someone essentially managing property. Yes. So just owning property, owning a second property with a second mortgage is kind of a, we don't care for that. And being out of state or far away, a long distance situation, it just

makes things more complicated when you can't have your own eyes on the property. So yes, Dave, if I were you, regardless of the stock market or not, I would still advise you to sell the rental. I mean, it's done great in equity. If you get 400 out of it, I mean, that's incredible. But what I honestly would do next is I would take some of it, I would invest some of it, you know, 15%, and then I would throw the rest at your house. Do you have any other consumer debt? I do not have any other debt than the two mortgages right now. Okay, that's perfect. And another reason I was sort of thinking about selling it was I saved quite a bit of

money, I do believe, in taxes because I've lived in it recently enough to not have to pay the capital gains. Yes, that's correct. Yep, that's awesome. Well, yeah, I would sell it and I would throw some into the market, 15%, and then the rest I'd throw at your mortgage and go ahead and pay off your primary mortgage. This is The Ramsey Show. Субтитры сделал DimaTorzok so in the news you mostly are hearing about the market the stock market and just the ups and the downs downs downs that we've experienced with that and what you're not hearing as much about is the real estate market you know six months even a year ago, people thought it's going to be the biggest bubble and it's going to crash. And as we all are experiencing, it is not going to crash. As a reminder, this is not 2008. We are in a completely different type of economy at this point when it comes to

real estate. There are still more houses out there, or not as many houses, half as many homes out there than there are buyers still right now in fall of 2022. And prices, you know, everything has softened for sure. It's a slower rate. We have all felt that. But the truth is, you know, when you're ready to buy a house, it's when you're ready, not when the market says you are ready. And so you can still win in the real estate market today. So if you're looking to buy a home or sell a home, it is still a great chance to get in the market. And one thing that you want to make sure that you do is that you win when it comes to your real estate agent.

You want someone with experience. Someone knows what they're doing. And so here at Ramsey, we have actually vetted all like a lot of the local agents in your area to find the ones that are top notch and that we recommend here at Ramsey Solutions. So if you want to connect with a Ramsey trusted agent for free, go to ramseysolutions.com slash agent and check out our endorsed local providers program. Again, that's ramseysolutions.com slash agents. It really does make such a big difference to have a great agent.

We actually sold our house in May with a Ramsey ELP, and they got the highest price per square footage in our whole area. Oh, wow. I was very excited about that. Well, and I feel like, too, people appreciate really, really good agents these days, I think, because

it is such a competitive market where it was easy to kind of slip into the whole, well, I'll just use my grandmother's, friend's, granddaughter's, cousin's dog walker. And they're a real estate agent. And so I hear they're great. And we're going to use them, right? Like people fell into that so often. But this is your largest, most people's largest financial purchase that they make in a lifetime.

It is a big deal when you enter into buying a house or selling a house. So having someone that knows what they're doing is so, so important. It's a game changer. For sure. All right, I'm Rachel Cruz with Christina Ellis hosting the Ramsey Show today.

So give us a call at 888-825-5225. We are taking your calls on life and money. Up next, we have Tom in Columbus, Ohio. Hey, Tom, welcome to the show. Thanks, Rachel. Christina, how are you? We're doing well. Thanks for calling. How can we help? Super. I am getting a little bit ahead of myself because I'm not quite through with that snowball yet, but I'm just a couple months away finally. So I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Oh, congratulations. Thank you. And in that, I'm so excited to use my money for something other than paying off debt. So I'm mapping out, you know, the emergency fund, the investing and all that kind of thing. That's where my question comes from. Okay, that's very exciting. So when I get to that point, I'm hoping to be there after the first of the year. Do I start investing at the same time as well as planning for like 529s for the children and things like that? Yeah, it's a great question. So we actually want you to have a fully funded emergency fund first. So how quickly do you think you'll get three to six months of expenses saved?

Well, with no debt, I'm hoping within three months. Okay. Yeah, absolutely. So once that's completed, then I would recommend taking 15% of your income and setting up a plan to invest in retirement. And so you can, you know, if you have a 401k at your work or a 403b, a Roth IRA, and just hitting that 15% of your take-home pay with that. And then the next step would be, yes, looking at kids' colleges. So how old are your kids? Eight, 10, and 12. Awesome. Yes, so that would be sitting down and starting to plan for college. Yeah, and I love that you're already feeling so much drive around that. I feel like that is kind of like seeing that light at the end of the tunnel is just so exciting. And I know I kind of heard like a sigh when we talked about the emergency

fund, but you're almost through that. That is just awesome. And as somebody too, who focuses on the college space, I would encourage you to obviously do 529, start saving money for college, but also start having the conversations with them about what finances will look like with college, talk to them about money, help them have good money habits and get them prepared to win scholarships. Because I mean, that's one of the biggest keys to success. A lot of people wait to the last minute to talk to their kids about money, and then they have no concept about what that's going to look like for college. And that's how we ended up in a student loan crisis. But if you start prepping them early,

they're probably going to build a resume that's a lot more likely to stand out for scholarships. So just having those conversations in multiple directions can be really helpful. Financial Peace Junior is on its way, so that's exciting. Yes, that's awesome. And with a little more detail with that question about the 529s, if you could, please, do I do three separate or do I do one and change the beneficiary?

No, I would do three separate. Yeah, I would put one, have each child have their own. I was actually, Winston and I, a few years ago, we were sitting down with our smart investor pro, actually, our investor, our investing professional that we sit with once a year, we were talking about kids college. And Tom, yeah, I mean, I kind of threw that out there. I was like, gosh, because what if one doesn't go to college, right? Like all these questions come up, and is it smarter to have it in one? And they, and they were still recommending, no, have it in each, because it's in each of their names. And if something happens, you know, that they still have their own account there for them that they can take.

And then you can even pass down generationally, which they can do for their own kids. Yeah. And that's the good news is it's like if you if you save a little bit more for your 12 year old and your 12 year old ends up getting scholarships and doesn't need as much. You can pass that on to your 10 year old and same with the 10 year old to the eight year old. So definitely beyond that. Right. Yeah. Isn't there? Yes. Even multiple. And if you want to go back to school, you can even use it for your own education like it can be shared within the family. Yes. Which is awesome. But yeah. Thanks. Thanks for the call, Tom. All right. Next up, we have Michael in Durham, North Carolina. Hey, Michael, welcome to the show. Hey, thank you for taking my call. Absolutely. How can we help?

All right. So I'm 20 years old. I am working full time. I moved out of my parents' house and I'm kind of thinking about going back to college. I tried going to college right out of high school and didn't really work out for me. I just kind of spoofed off the classes and wasn't paying attention. And, um, I'm kind of considering going back for software engineering and I'm just not sure if that's a good idea or not. So I'm working full time, um, with as a fiber engineer with AT&T over here and RTP, uh, I'm making about four grand after taxes every month and there is room for growth here. Um, but most of my coworkers and, uh, the people who have, um, more experience, they all have college degrees and they are offering a, um, reimbursement program for me to go back to school. And I'm just not sure if I can juggle working full time and going back to college.

So I was just wondering what y'all's insight was on that. Now, if you go back to college, are you strictly considering a four-year degree, or are you open to maybe some sort of... Well, I would go to a community college here, which would keep the cost down, and probably just start doing part-time classes, see how that goes, and then maybe ramp up the classes a little bit more if I can handle that and if I'm comfortable with it. So that's kind of what I was thinking about doing, but I wanted to run it by you.

Tell me a little bit more about your motivation for going back. Obviously, there's the income factor, but you talked about how you went to college before and kind of didn't continue on with it. Are you feeling pretty excited about going back right now? Yeah, I am. I have two older siblings who both went to school for IT and they're probably doing great. They did well. I was going to say, yeah. Go ahead. Oh, no, I was going to just say, I bet they're doing well. Yeah, they are, and they really enjoy it. And I feel like I've always enjoyed working with computers,

and I really just want to get back into school, but I don't want to give up my job at the same time or maybe not give 100% to both of those things because I need my job to pay for my rent and my bills. I have $1,000 saved up and I'm working

on my emergency fund. Awesome. Awesome, Michael. Well, that's incredible. So yeah, if I were you, I think definitely taking some classes. Yeah.

I mean, if it's paid for. Yes. Online and at night. Take your time. You're 20 years old. Even if it takes you an extra year to do it, in three years, you could have a degree. You're making a great income because that is a great field of study to go into. And if you want to check out Ken Coleman's Get Clear Assessments, if you hold on the line, Austin will pick up and

give you an access code to that because that could also help you kind of guide you even more specifically on what you want to do. welcome back to the ramsey show i am rachel Rachel Cruz hosting today with Christina Ellis and taking your calls. So up next, we have Heather in Denver. Hey, Heather, welcome to the show. Hi, ladies. Thanks for taking my call. Absolutely. How can we help?

So my question is, so I'm currently on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage at a rate of 2.625%. After getting connected with Dave, we're trying to pay that off early, and our goal is to put an extra $12,000 towards that mortgage a year. We were talking to a financial advisor who brought up putting that extra $12,000 into a brokerage account with the goal of paying the mortgage off in 15 instead of 30. And then the interest that's earning money on the brokerage account for interest for 15 years. And then whenever we have the rest of our mortgage or that 15 year period, then pull out the remaining balance of our mortgage to pay it off at that point. He said, because with the interest,

with our mortgage interest rate being so low and the interest rates we'd get on a brokerage account that he'd think we'd actually end up making out better and still being able to pay the mortgage off early. I was wondering what your guys' thoughts were on that. Yeah, so financial advisors, they love math. You just threw all those numbers at me. Yeah. And I would say mathematically, Heather, I get it. Right. Like, I mean, we're not we're not dumb. We see the math and a house payment, there's a level of debt that you carry that still has, debt is risk. And so that is still there. And on top of that, you never can factor in

the fact of what happens to your mental, emotional, relational space in your head when you don't owe anyone anything. And so there's this game that can be played mathematically. So whether it's what he's saying, and it's like, well, yeah, if you just put in this brokerage account, you know, mathematically, it makes more sense because you could pay it off in 15 instead of 30. Some people say, well, just invest that, you know, invest that instead of paying off the house because you could make more in the market that, you know,. There's all these ways around it. But honestly, Heather, after doing this stuff at Ramsey Solutions that we've been talking about

for 30 plus years, we still recommend just paying it off early, throwing money at the principal extra every month, like you were saying, and watching that go down because there's a part of the math too, or I'm sorry, a part of this equation that is so much of your behavior and the motivation of seeing it.

We just did some pictures and signed books in the lobby, and we had a wonderful couple show us their picture of their house with a bunch of balloons, and they're coloring it in on all the extra payments that they're making to pay it off. And there's like this motivation when you start to watch that go down that, again, math doesn't play into that equation, but there is something about that human spirit element that is so, so real, Heather.

So that's where I would disagree with your financial advisor and I would just start paying down that principle. Yeah, it may not be as exciting to throw the money in a brokerage account while paying off your mortgage and actually seeing that progress is awesome. With the brokerage account, it's easy to have those best laid plans and say, yeah, we're going

to pay it off early through this really creative strategy or the solid strategy that mathematically makes sense. But then the opportunity to go on a trip comes up or, you know, some other temptation. Maybe you see a little bit more expensive of a car and there's just other temptations that can easily kind of cut into that motivation to really knock down the house versus actually seeing the mortgage payment go away, which is pretty awesome. Have you guys done the math, Heather, to figure out, okay, how quickly do we think we can pay this off? Well, it depends on how much money my kids continue to cost me. Hopefully over the years, we feel bad. More and more at it. And so I'm hoping for, you know, closer to 10 years. But currently with no math changing,

I think 15 was realistic. Okay. Yeah. And what's fascinating, Heather, do you have any other consumer debt or anything? Any other payments? No, we've never carried debt. Okay, that's awesome. Amazing, amazing. So yeah, that's people that are doing the Ramsey plan, where you're investing 15% of your income into retirement, kids, college and paying off the house early. On average, we're seeing people pay off their homes in seven to eight years. And that's on average, we see it lower, we see it higher sometimes. So that's what also part of this factor that yeah, math on paper is showing you one number, but I'm curious once you guys get going and you know, and as life progresses, you know, you, you could get a raise bonuses, like other

stuff's can start happening in your life where you can have more money to throw at the mortgage and actually accelerate you and just your motivation. So yeah, and it sounds like you guys are really good at money. I feel like you're the type of people that with a plan and with a very clear goal and target, y'all are going to tackle this pretty quickly and probably be on the quicker end of that seven to eight years. Yeah, we stick to our plans and we are both very cautious with our money, but we also don't understand the financial world. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Well, I would recommend to Heather to check out our SmartVestor Pros. If you go to RamseySolutions.com and sit down with one of those financial advisors,

because they're going to, they teach what we teach here. And that's how to get out of debt as quickly as possible and to be able to invest well. So they're going to be able to look at your entire financial picture, even your retirement and everything. Because, yeah, that's our goal for you is to get to that baby step seven where you have no debt, no payments, and you can live like no one else and give like no one else as well. So it sounds great, Heather. You guys, like you said, Christina, motivated. You're smart. And I feel like you guys can pay this off really much faster than 15 years. Yeah, and I appreciate your honesty of saying, you know, hey, we don't know a lot about money.

We don't know about finances. And it can be so tempting when somebody throws out that math to say, hey, if you do this, like you can earn this. And it's going to be really exciting because then you can do this and you can throw. It can kind of feel overwhelming. And with our principles, they're really simple. And they're not very complicated. We're just basic common sense math, but it works. Over 30 years, we've seen so many people on that stage doing debt-free screams that just went through the steps.

They followed a plan. It wasn't the sexiest, flashiest, newest, hottest, like modern plan, but it's gotten grandma's way of doing finances and it works. We see it all the time. So it's exciting seeing people, you know, the beginning phases of this plan, the people out in the lobby with the home chart who are filling out those bubbles and just watching that progress. Absolutely. And there's a, there's a true, you know, you said, yeah, grandma's ways of handling money and God's ways of handling money. When you look at, at even scripture, which which is how we we filter our lives through when scripture says that bar the borrower is slave to the lender there is a real true sense of that that when you have

payments debt of any kind the mortgage is the one type of debt we don't yell at you for and we even say you don't have to be gazelle intense at the mortgage we had a call yesterday and the guy's like i want to pay off our house but my wife says she needs a new car because she can't go in reverse. We were like, oh my gosh, get her a car. There's a time and a place to be that intense when you're paying off your consumer debt. So again, the mortgage is the one that we will not yell at you for, but we do want you out of it as soon as possible because if a pandemic happens, if you lose a job, like anything and everything, when you don't have that liability, when you don't have debt in your life. Again, we said it earlier, but it's true. You just have options. And there's this peace of mind to be like, what do I want to do with this money? It

is all mine. And that mindset, I think emotionally, spiritually, mentally is what does not factor into formulas that people so easily can go into when it comes to money. Because it's easy just to do the math, but that's a small part of it, right? Right. The behavior change is why it's so huge. The freedom, the feeling, the people who come across that stage,

you have no mortgage, the lightness they walk with is just amazing and it's so inspiring. And it's like, you can't just have that with numbers and some of this advice that keeps you in debt longer. I mean, like the 30 year mortgage at 2.65%, that feels tempting. A financial advisor might be like, hey, stay there. But like, being out of debt in seven to eight years, that's amazing versus staying there for 30. Yes, that's right. That's right. So we we talk about all these subjects

here on the Ramsey show, but we also are traveling, doing live events this fall and this coming spring, which we are so excited about. So how we cover relationships, career, money, anything and everything here on the Ramsey Show. We also cover those subjects

on the road at the SMART Conference. So here in a couple of weeks, we have our biggest event. It'll be close to 6,000 people in Dallas, Texas. So it'll be all the Ramsey personalities, Dave Ramsey, Dr. John Deloney, Ken Coleman, Christina Ellis here to my right, George Campbell, and myself, Rachel Cruz. So make sure to get your passes at ramseysolutions.com slash events to get your tickets. It is October 22nd in Dallas. So make

sure to see us there. And thank you to everyone in the booth. Thank you, America, for listening. We'll be back. Hey, it's Rachel Cruz, co-host on The Ramsey Show. If you want to do your debt-free scream live on the show, visit ramseysolutions.com slash debt-free scream. We'd love for you to come to Nashville and tell Dave your story. That's ramseysolutions.com slash debt-free scream.