The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Keep Renting or Buy a House? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: September 1, 2023

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's The Ramsey Show, where we talk about your money and your work and your mental and emotional health, pretty much everything. I'm John Deloney, joined by Jade Warshaw, and we're taking your calls on money and work and life and love, all of it. 888-825-5225.

It's 888-825-5225. Let's go out to Canada and talk to the one and only Carl. What's up, Carl? Hi there. How are you? Fantastic. How about you? Good. I'm well. I have lots of questions, so I'm going to throw them right at you. How about you? Good. I'm well. Lots of questions. So I'm going to throw them right at you. Bring them on, man. Bring them on.

I'm wondering whether to carry on renting or, quote, purchase a property. So essentially, I just got onto Ramsey about a week ago. Read the total money makeover in like two days. I'm like, okay, drink the Kool-Aid. Let's go. Welcome to the cult. Welcome to the cult. Thank you. So I'll throw some numbers at you. So basically, uh, I didn't have an emergency fund, so I just made an emergency fund. So I got about five months worth of emergency. Now I got 150,000 in savings. Um, My current rent is about just short of $3,000 a month. To purchase something that would be equivalent to what I rent, and to be honest, not even quite as good as what I rent, I would

be looking at something around the $750,000 mark. I was looking at purchasing things before I found Ramsey, and I was looking at 25-year mortgages because that's just what people do apparently. And then when I saw your 15 year kind of recommendation, you know, put a few calculations in and ended up like the mortgage would be like $4,800 a month or something like that. So then it ended up being well over my kind of 25 cents type thing. What's your income? So I'm wondering, so between me and my wife, we're like before tax around 130-ish, 135. Sorry, can you tell me what it is monthly? It'll help me not have to do as much mental calculation. Yeah, yeah. So monthly after tax, we basically bring in roughly $9,000. Okay, so yeah, that's going to be almost half more than

half i'm sorry wow so when i was 20 25 i was like okay it's kind of close and then obviously i started listening to you when i was 15 years i was like okay i'm not even close now so yeah because my rent's so high and like do i carry on renting and put all that like because it might take me another five years to save up so the the $750,000 home that you're, the home that you're looking at that costs $750,000, what are you assuming that you'll put down on that?

The $150,000 that you have saved? The $150,000, yeah. Can you not just find a less expensive home? Is there, is that just not? Vancouver is pretty rough. Yeah, there's just not, nothing in that area.

So, yeah. So, if I move out of the city, which probably isn't really an option right now just because of jobs, but if I did move out of the city, I could knock that down to like 600. But even then, it would... Like, I would be moving into something

that's not as nice. Basically, I locked in my rent. Vancouver has a rental kind of, you can only put it up so much each year. So I locked in my rent like three years ago during the pandemic. So my 3,000, what I get now is a two bedroom kind of big garden,

like way nicer than what I would be able to afford. I'd be moving in or if I was moving in and I was 600 in this area, it'd be one bedroom essentially. There's a piece of this 600 in this area be one bedroom essentially there's a piece of this that is um a real a real issue and a real struggle right because you have a family there's a certain amount of space that um you do need in order for it to be worth it to purchase your home right now but then there's also a piece of it that's like here's what we would like to have also, right? And I've heard you say it's not as nice as.

Right, it's not as nice as this. We don't want to live in this area versus it's going to be a long way. And I, you know, I always remind people and John, feel free to jump in because I think you've purchased more real estate than I have. I know you have. I always have to remind people that real estate's a ladder. And when you get in, a lot of times we want to get in where we want to be, but that's not the same as getting in at reality. Does that make sense? Like, I'll be honest, the first house Sam and I wanted to purchase, I want, there were a lot of

things that I wanted and some things that also, you know, the market was kind of demanding as well, but you have to look at that and go okay but yeah but what can i afford and where can i afford it math doesn't have feelings so here's my promise to you carl let's say you went down today you got off the phone with us you told your wife i'm buying us a house and you went down to a local bank and you would find a lender especially if you said i have a hundred thousand dollars oh yeah you'd find a lender and you took out a 30-year mortgage or 25-year mortgage in canada and your payment was half was half of your take home yeah and then your wife gets pregnant your wife gets laid off you get promoted and they say you have to move right away

what i'm telling you with i promise you we've done this so long you would be signing up for what looks like a dream and it would be a nightmare down the road or i had a an incredible house that i bought here in in the woods outside of nashville tennessee and i had it fully inspected and it was fantastic and in the last three years, I've replaced the roof and an air conditioner and some sidewalk stuff and the back deck and on and on. And if you have half of your income going to just the bare minimum on a 25, you've changed yourself to a bank for 25 years. You change your whole family to a bank for 25 years. There is no room for life to happen and

you and i both know life happens right it won't be enjoyable at that point and so where that where that comes into play you and your wife start getting short with each other you don't know why you start sleeping a little bit less and a little bit less and stay a little more time on your phone a little more time in front of netflix or whatever you're watching up in Vancouver and you find yourself slowly caving in on yourself or as the great writer said, you start slowly delving into your quiet life of desperation all because you chained yourself to something you could not carry. And so if you said it's going to take me five more years, I'd say, great. That's when you can afford it.

And so it's not a matter of I could get it now, but you're right. You could get it now. A bank will give you something because they're going to bundle that loan and sell it to somebody else. And they don't own this. They'd have no skin in the backside of this, of this game. You though have to pay it. And so what we're saying is, yeah, rent, man, make peace with renting. That's just where we happen to be. Yeah. It's not forever. It's five years or three years or. So what if it takes me 10. Because it's not forever. Yeah, it's not forever. It's five years or three years. So what if it takes me 10 years? That's the question because my wife is pregnant.

It won't. So my wife is pregnant so our income is going to go down. Our ability to save is definitely going to go down. Then you have to have hard conversations about, so we have this a lot.

Somebody calls and says, I'm an editor for a magazine in Manhattanhattan it's been my dream to live in manhattan i'm not leaving but i make twenty eight thousand dollars a year and that's when i tell you math doesn't have feelings and so that's when you have to have hard conversations that my wife and i have had that jade and her husband have had about where are we going to actually live i have family that that lived in Los Angeles and they lived there for a number of years. They loved their careers, but they realized they would never be able to own a

home in Los Angeles, making the money that they make in their career. And they had to decide, hey, what do we value most? Do we value our career most? Do we value the city that we live in most? Or do we value the idea of having a home with a yard and a fence? And they decided, hey, we value the city that we live in most? Or do we value the idea of having a home with a yard and a fence? And they decided, hey, we value being able to buy a home. And so they moved to Atlanta, outside of Atlanta, Georgia, where they were able to get something that they could afford. And they made that hard choice. And it's been worth it for them.

Our culture tells us that that choice that we have to make is our government's fault, is our bank's fault, is our college's fault. It's not. You got to make choices for your family, hard ones. But don't buy something you can't afford. We love you more than that. We'll be right back. This is the Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225.

Listen, I have a brand new book coming out called Building a Non-Anxious Life. If you pre-order today, you'll get 75 bucks in free bonus items. We are bribing you to buy the book early because it helps out with a number of different metrics and more importantly the book will be in your mailbox on or before october 3rd and you'll be ready to read it and it comes with a free audiobook all those things nearly half of the u.s population reports that their lives are affected by burnout anxiety stress whatever you want to call it i dumped it all in the. It's everywhere. But you've heard me say this a million times on the show. I'm going to say it a million more times. Anxiety is not the problem. It's just your body trying to get your attention that the life you are living is not safe. And I don't mean safe

like somebody's coming at you with a hatchet, although that might be the case, but you have chained yourself to somebody who's making your life unsafe. You are living in a toxic environment. You are running and running and running you and your family into the ground. And if you're driving down the road, you know exactly what I'm talking about right now. Or if you're sitting at home, listening to this as a podcast, you know exactly what I'm talking about right now. And so this book is a plan. This is not me throwing a bunch of theories at you with me and my nerd friends. This is an actual plan that you sit down with your family, you sit down with your friends and you say, this all ends today. Very similar to Total Money Makeover. It was like, let's sit down and change our money. This is let's sit down and change how our home feels and how our home operates.

Let's change everything from the floor to the ceiling. And that's what this book is. If you go to ramsaysolutions.com right now, it's 20 bucks and you'll get a bunch of free stuff, like I said, and pick it up and it'll be delivered to you on or before the release date. Thank you so much. Jade, we're setting records in the building. It's kind of humbling. It's pretty cool. And it's fun to kind of talk trash with Dave, but ramsaysolutions.com to pick it up. I'm really, really grateful. Let's run out to Pensacola, Florida and talk to the great and powerful Renee.

What's up, Renee? Hey, how are you guys doing? Hey, we're good. How are you? Great. I'm 58 years old and have no retirement. What do I do? Ooh, girl.

Is it just you? We're just going to jump in the deep end of the pool. Thanks, Renee. I'm not mad at it. Let's go through the facts. Yeah, it is just me. Okay, it's just you. What sort of debt do you have?

Do you have debt? I do have debt. So right now I have $61,000 in credit card debt. And then I have a car, $33,000. I own that $11,000 to the IRS that I make payments on. And then of course, I have a $9,300 student loan that'll be kicking up again here shortly. I am on baby step two. So I'm in my snowball. That's where I'm at. How'd this happen? Can you tell me a little bit about what got you here? Sure. I can tell you that. I went through a, I was a stay at home homeschool mom for several years and went through a horrific divorce. And because I was a volunteer firefighter EMT, I went and got a job as a

firefighter EMT and had $200,000 worth of debt I was responsible for in the divorce and started making $9.50 an hour. And I had three children relying on me. So I've gone through the years, you know, went from a firefighter to working into technology, raising the kids, getting them one through college, one married. And I'm kind of settled into my own place here. I've owned two homes, so I've kind of moved up. When I went to work for the company I work for now, I started at the bottom. I've worked my way up.

And I'm making good money. What are you making now? Right now I'm making between $130 to $140 a year with bonus. Very good. And I heard you say that you had two homes. Is that you working, selling one and buying another, or you currently have two homes? So I have one home now. I did buy one in Colorado and sold that and moved home to Florida. Okay. And the home that you have now in Florida, what do you owe on it? Tell me more about that.

Yeah. So I just bought this home just a little under two years ago. So I owe $318,000 on this home. Uh-huh. And what's it worth? It's worth right now market value. It's between $350,000, $380,000 is what they're saying. Okay.

Now, sorry, I'm about to ask you just rapid-fire questions because I want to make sure I understand everything. Can you tell me your monthly take-home pay after taxes? Yeah, you bet. Stand by. It is $7,784. Good. And can you tell me what your mortgage payment is $2,072. Okay, $2,072. All right, it's very close. All right, you got a mess, but you've got a decent size shovel.

Actually, you've got a pretty good size shovel. You got about $125,000 of debt, okay? Of course, you know, baby step two, we're paying off everything except the mortgage. You're making about $130,'s just you now kids are moved on they're in college what graduated they're yeah they're they're way into life so what would it just look like you living on half of what you earn you're living on beans and rice, like Dave would say, beans and rice, rice and beans, living on nothing. And you're spending the next two years paying off $125,000 of debt the next two and a half years getting after it. I mean, that's really what it is. Yeah. So that's my plan, right, is to be debt free by 2026. but there's a couple other things that I'm looking at, right? So I have this career,

it's, it's a career. Um, but what I really want to do is change careers. So I'm looking at getting in, getting my real estate associate license. Um, I've already taken the class and getting ready to go, uh, take the test, um test to get my state license. And then I wanted to kind of continue my career, do real estate part-time until after two years where I can get my broker license and then move into property management and actually be free to kind of move out of the corporate career

and into a different career. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but in this case, you need to maintain your income or higher while you do all of that. Right. That's that would be my only caveat to that. I mean, I'm not mad at any of that as long as you're maintaining your income and higher as you're making that transition. And then, of course, the quick I mean, here's the thing. The quicker we get out of baby step two, the quicker we're getting that emergency fund, the quicker we can start investing for the future. Because here's the thing. Getting out of debt, that's just thing one. Right. You've got a whole future ahead of you. You're going to be working for a while because I want you to retire with a paid for home. Right.

And once you get this debt cleared, you might have to take a look at that. I'm just going to be honest. You might have to take an honest look at that situation. I don't really know. And in Florida, it would be a condo. It would be something that was less expensive than that to get you to still have ownership, but to have a less, you know, less amount of money tied up to where you can also start investing more. You're going to have to, at some point, have a little bit more of an honest conversation, but it's all going to depend on how quickly you get this debt cleared. So Renee, let me say this.

My guess is you spent a long time towards the end of your marriage, you spent a long time after your marriage cleaning up messes, running around, doing all this stuff. And you had this one day, this one day, this is going to one day, this is going to one day, this is going to one day, I'm gonna have that house. One day, I'm gonna do whatever the crap I want to do. Cause I'm sick of paying off somebody else's debt, sick of raising these kids by myself on and on and on. And I'm saying this because I love you, Renee, you are 58 and you're

broke. You make an incredible salary and you owe $125,000 and you went and bought a 350 to $400,000 home. And I want more than anything. I want you to have that big home with a pool and a seaside view. I want all that for you. But it might be that you can just afford a condo. And I'd much rather you be 65 or 72 and have a paid for condo. And then you're thinking about doing real estate on the side when you want because you wrote out a six-figure job for 15 years, even though you didn't love it. I know you want these other things,

but I don't want you to lose sight of reality. Math does not care about your feelings. And I hate to say that, but it doesn't. We want this for you. Get out of debt as soon as you possibly can. By the way, sell that car, get something cheaper, and put that IRS debt first. Those are are action items This is the Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225.

I'm John Deloney, joined by Jade Warshall. Listen, if you are totally frustrated by, Jade and I were talking in an earlier segment, the trillions of dollars we owe in student loans and credit card or the way Congress spends money or the way your neighbors or whatever, whatever, a no cost way, cost nothing that you can help everybody in your community out and beyond is to just like or subscribe to the show. If you're listening to, if you're watching this on YouTube, just hit the subscribe button. Whatever device you are, leave a five-star review, click and like, whatever the thing is on your device. Because the more people that do that,

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podcast feed. And that's how we're going to change the world. So just take a second and cost anything. It's a way to help change everything for our communities. Thank you so, so much for those of you who are doing that. Let's run out to Dallas, Texas and talk to Nicholas. What's up? Great and powerful.

Nicholas. Hey, what's up, John? How are you doing? Doing great, man. How are you? I'm doing great. Doing great. Glad to talk to you guys.

You too, man. What's up? Yeah. Hey, I just had a quick question. Basically, all I wanted to know was if I should pay more towards my mortgage or if I should hold off on that and save for me and my wife's second baby. Oh, congrats on the second baby. That's cool. So I'm just making the assumption that you have three to six months saved.

I'm making the assumption that you are investing 15% during this process. You're so much better than me. I was making the assumption that your wife said, now that baby two is coming, we're getting a house. Oh, no, no. Yeah, we've had this house since January of this year. And yes, I'm out of debt and saving 15%. And I forgot the other one.

Oh, yeah. Three to six months expenses. Yeah. Do you have three months or six months? Yes. Oh, three months. Three months. Okay.

What I would do is, yeah, I'd probably pull back and just save up a pile of cash. Keep a bunch of money there for sure. Make sure you have enough to cover your deductible because you're at least going to hit that with this baby. And then, yeah, just go ahead and pile it up when baby gets here and the baby is healthy and beautiful and all those warm and snuggly cuddly things that babies are you can just take that big chunk of money and throw it at the mortgage and that's going to feel pretty great I think that's what I do that's a pretty easy thing you don't lose either way no nothing lost

matter of fact you just get a lot of peace it's always peaceful knowing that you're sitting on a big chunk of money you know right yeah and uh the the main reason i was asking was because um even if we pay the extra 300 we a lot of the money that we're going to save we won't need immediately after the baby is born you know just like the hospital bills it's going to come a little while after the baby is born and all that. So I thought maybe we could just save what we needed for whenever the baby is actually here. I would actually flip that around, dude, and I would just sit down with the hospital. And I would say, can I get a statement up front? Right, okay.

And almost all of them will give you a statement up front, and you can ask for the cash payout. And I think on one of my kids, we did the cash payout because it was cheaper to do that than our deductible was going to be on our insurance plan. That's interesting. Okay. So walking in, they get stiffed a lot.

So if you walk in and say, if I write you a check this birth assuming that you know the baby doesn't end up in in some sort of nicu or something like that um right but just a traditional um you know delivery and mother care and aftercare and all that what's the check wait i just learned something they'll give you a number i didn't know you could do that. They love having a check. Yeah. It's too late for me. I would not. Here's what I want to avoid. I don't want to just putter along and wait for these bills to just trickle

into our house. Yeah, and you don't want to have to use your emergency fund for this because it's technically not an emergency. You know it's coming. So save up your own cash. I love John's idea. Anything that's going to get this done cheaper and with less of a unknown. It's the an emergency. You know it's coming. So save up your own cash. I love John's idea. Anything that's going to get this done cheaper and with less of a unknown. It's the intentionality. Yeah.

That's right. I like that. Yeah. So good for you, man. Congratulations. We'll be cheering you on. When this baby's born healthy and beautiful and wonderful, send us a photo and we'll see if we can post it up there.

We're proud of you, brother. We're proud of you. All right. Let's go out to Green Bay, where Aaron Rodgers just left, and talk to Bailey. What's up, Bailey? That was kind of a dig, my bad. Good, how are you?

Good, thanks for taking my call. Of course, what's up? All right, so my husband and I, we've been debt-free for about three years, and we paid off our student loans shortly before COVID. But when the Biden student loan relief refund came out, we thought, well, maybe we'll apply for the $10,000 refund, and then if it goes through, we'll cash the check.

If it doesn't go through, we'll just tear the check up. So we have a check for $10,000 that we never cashed and we do not plan to. Yeah. And now... Save it for the next toilet paper shortage. Yeah, right. Well, now the loan provider that the student loans were originally with, they said that we owe $10,000 regardless of if we cash the check or not. Well, yeah, because you got a refund on your payments. Even though we never cashed it? Yeah, you got the refund on your pay. It's basically, let's...

It's off their books. To make it simple, let's say your loan was $10,000 and you paid it off. And then Biden said, oh, we're going to give you forgiveness. So you went and said, hey, I want my money back because Biden's about to clear this. So they gave you $10,000 back. You held on to it waiting for Biden to clear the forgiveness. He didn't. So unless you want to owe $10,000, you need to give them back their check. Does that make sense? Or did I miss something on what you were saying? Well, does that mean that we should cash the check and then just take the cash

and put it right back into the loan? Yeah, I mean, if they wrote the check to you, they wrote the check to you, so you need to liquefy that money and then digitize that money and give them their payment online. My guess is there is a separate wing of this whatever chaos is in there

that sends out the refund checks. And once that refund check goes out, it goes on a balance sheet and gets sent to another department. And there's another department just going down saying 10,000, 10,000, 10,000. And you're probably one of about six people out of 40 million people that didn't cash that check and go buy a car with it. And so you may end up as silly as this is, you may end up cashing this check to turn around and write them a check right back. Well, let me ask you this. The check isn't expired, is it? It's not. It expires in about a month. Girl, get in the car right now. Go to the bank. I think you can do it online now,

but cash that check because this is what I don't trust because student loan, look, I don't trust them because if that check expires, they're going to be like, well, you cash the check. We don't have a record of it. You will owe $10,000 and you won't have the money to pay it. So today, please. So the last thing, I have enough hesitancy in my voice because i'm not looking at this check and i haven't heard of this problem i may call the servicer back who is telling you this and say and you tell them i'm holding a paper check that you tell me i owe you

so i'm about to go to the to the bank cash this in my account, and write you a $10,000 check. Is that correct? And they will probably just say, you owe us $10,000. Like a computerized program. But I would check with them to make sure or ask them, is there two different departments here? Because I never cashed this check. My guess is they just have a record that you were written a check

and they want their money back. They don't have the deposits record. That's my guess. Sure. Yeah, and we did a call earlier, and they want their money back, they don't have the deposit record. That's my guess. Sure. Yeah, and we did a call earlier and they did basically say that. Like, well, you're liable for it whether you cash it or not.

That's right. Well, yeah, because for them, they just saw the money go out. You said you wanted forgiveness when you checked the box and the rest was, it truly was on you to either hold on to that money

or spend it like so many other people did. So good on you for not spending the money. But now it's time to get down to the bank, get that money, and give it back to your student loan service provider so you can be free once and for all. And I want to applaud Washington for spending our tax dollars wisely once again. Ha ha. Way to go, guys. $5 billion a month. Jeez. This is the Ramsey Show.

Listen to this. This Smart Conference is a weekend event with Dave, Rachel, me, Jade, George Camel, Ken Coleman in Chicago, Illinois on September 15th and 16th. It's going to be a party. Dedicate a weekend to be focused and dialed in on achieving your goals in money, emotional health, mental health, career, and relationships. School has started and all of your good intentions are already out the window and it has turned into a blender without a top on. This is a great weekend to go and control, alt, delete, and reset.

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It is a blast. It's a blast. Alright, let's run out to Oklahoma City, or as Texans call it, Southern Canada, and talk to Pam. What's up, Pam? Hi, guys. How you doing? Pam, I almost broke into my Oklahoma where the

wind blows. There you go. What's up? Oh, not much. I just have a quick question that my husband and I are kind of disagreeing about. Yes. So I need your input. We will solve this for your marriage. Bring it.

Okay, thanks. Okay, so last year we bought a new truck, and we are debt-free, including two homes and all of our cars except for this one and hold on you're like um i'm in and i am super fast runner except i'm very slow i am debt free except i'm not debt free and i on a truck. How much do you owe on this truck? That's what bothers me is because I can't say that now because I have this truck. But here's the deal. It's free interest, 0% interest.

I don't care. Yes. So my question is, do we go ahead and just pay it off and then i can actually say i'm debt free or do we continue it until it pays off which would be about another two years how much is the truck six thousand more how much is the loan how much do the loan is it was initially like forty something thousand but now it's twenty six thousand twenty six help me with this pam help me with this you'll have to pay for homes yeah how much money do you have saved? Hold on. Before that, how could y'all do this to yourselves?

Y'all made a promise and a commitment to yourselves that we're going to be different, live a different way. What happened? Well, you know how those dealerships talk to you and say, hey, we can do this. No, not Jade and I. We know that. We just leave. Wait, wait and say, hey, we can do this. No, not Jade and I. We know that. We just leave.

Why didn't you? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. That's the same thing. How did you cheat on her? Well, you know how them women talk to you. No. I'm just, look, look, look, look. You walked into the dealership.

No. They didn't come get you at your house. You walked in without the cash. If you walk into you walked in without the cash if you walk into the dealership without a cat without the cash and you're like i'm just gonna look around they're gonna sell you okay these look i tell people all the time man willpower s willpower in some ways is for punks because if the cookies are sitting on the desk you're gonna eat one i'm gonna eat a bunch of exactly you know what i'm saying and that's what happened to you pam yeah i know i know so here's the deal he's saying you know why not why tie up the money that's in the bank let it continue to draw interest

it's already tied up that's a that's a straw man's argument it's you have you have you're either going to be tied up to a bank or you're going to be tied up to a car dealership you're already tied that's not the that that is a that's a false that's a false truth i know you got some money laying around pam how much money do you have laying around uh you mean liquid yeah like in your savings anything that's not retirement money okay um about 450,000 good god on a stick with a pony what are you talking about pay it off right now today okay you know uh that's what i want to do you know you have 400,000 dollars in cash.

I thought you were going to say like, well, you know, we're really struggling. Y'all are millionaires. To quote Neil Young, today. Yeah. Okay. Pay it off today. Pam, listen, tell your husband that A, he needs to get a better calculator. B, that y'all made a commitment

that y'all were going to be debt-free millionaires and that you're just playing with fire and playing with fire and you're playing with fire. And here's all seriousness. This is the moment when everything is perfect and somebody gets sick. This is the moment when everything happens

and somebody loses their job or the market goes down and you're holding this thing that was no big deal and suddenly it's a big deal yeah and you're making it a big deal because you know it's got no interest here we can get four percent in our high yield savings account yeah there's a four percent sleep tax on you i can hear it right what what do you mean i mean it's costing you your your your sleep at night the paltry amount of money you're gonna make over two years in a high yield savings account on 26 000 is almost nothing and it's costing you way more every moment you wake up and the first

thing you think is i can't believe we went back into debt well yeah because yeah you guys said you were gonna live one way you chose not to and the thing is you weren't even backed into a corner no it was just you got now played by a car dealer yeah and you've got the money hey here's what i want you to walk away from this you guys need to be confident in your choices and what you know to do you guys are debt free you've got homes paid for homes paid for cars 450 000 in liquid cash you no one tells you guys what to do all right you tell them what you're gonna do and in this case there you go you know what i'm saying in this case you're gonna go down there you're gonna pay this off i am gonna correct myself and say neil diamond instead of neil young and you are gonna be debt

free by the end of this call you're gonna get off here you're gonna call them pay it off and you are going to be debt free by the end of this call. You're going to get off here. You're going to call them, pay it off, and you're going to feel so good because you're going to stand your ground and you're never going back into debt again. Right? Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're right. Yeah. Love that. Are you going to really do this, Pam? Yeah, I know. I really will. Trust me. I'll get off this phone and I will tell him what you said and then we will go pay it off. Let's do it. If you want to have some fun, just do the quick calculation real quick. 4% on $26,000 over 24 months.

And put that number down in front of him and tell him a wife with peace in her heart is worth more than this dollar amount. I know that's right. Yeah. A wife that will love you and not wake up every day wanting to hit you with the exact truck that you took a loan out on is worth more than this dollar amount. And just make it very, very real. Yeah. That's true. That sounds good.

I think I'll do that. And for everybody listening who's kind of rolling their eyes, mathematically, your husband's right. It's free money. That math makes sense. And if this was a show about math, it would be a 14-second show. This is a show about freedom. And we're not talking about math. He made a good math move.

I mean, I can borrow money for the X number of years for free for nothing, and I can make a little bit of pocket change over here and a high yield savings account on the side. Great. That's a good math problem, but it doesn't take into account the wife that is saying, Hey, this is not who we are. This is,

this is not who we said we're going to be. We were going to be a couple who is free. Like I love that. We say that Jade, nobody tells Pam and company what to do nobody except for you know how them car dealers are come on pam a word to the wise i just you know you can't put yourself in a situation to be tempted like that you go to the car dealership just to look around i'm just browsing browsing. They're trained. They are trained karate experts.

They will karate you. I mean, it's like going to sit in the bar when you said you're not going to drink, right? You can't put yourself in these situations and then be like, I'm going to willpower my way out. Like, you're just, why? It's too much work. Whenever I have one of my, like, no candy promises to myself, I can't walk down the aisle. Don't do it. Because I'm not trustworthy in those moments when it comes to myself. I can't walk down the aisle. Don't do it. Because I'm not trustworthy in those moments when it comes to candy.

So, yes, Pam. Take the temptation away. We're with you. You win the argument. Pam won. Husband, zero. But remember this, too. If you win and he loses, you both lose.

So make this decision together. It's another hour of the books here on The Ramsey Show. We're so grateful that you have been with us. We'll be right back. Hey, what's up, guys? It's Jade. Look, if you like what you heard in this episode and want to know more about getting started on the Ramsey baby steps, go to ramseysolutions.com and click the

get started button. We'll help you figure out the best next step for you based on your specific situation. That's ramseysolutions.com and click get started.