The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Let My Fiancée Help Pay Off My Debt? (Hour 1)

Episode Date: June 8, 2021

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Music Music Music Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, 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.

I'm Dave Ramsey, your host, Anthony O'Neill. Ramsey Personality, number one best-selling author of the book, Debt-Free Degree, is my co-host today. Open phones as we talk about your life and your money. The phone number is 888-825-5225. That's 888825525. So, Anthony, you have spoken now all over America many, many times, and certainly on this show many times, about this idea of how to pay for college, paying cash for college.

Is college still a good idea? All of these kinds of things. Because of this ridiculous, epic student loan debacle that our idiot Congress continues to fund with your money and my money. And it's an obvious failure. It's an obvious blight on the American people. And yet they continue to do this to the American people. And yet walk around talking about forgiving loans but keep making them. Right, right.

So something's wrong with that. But, you know, this idea of paying for kids' college, it's something that families that are building wealth always want to look at. Yeah, yeah. And here's the reason why, Dave. It's because it's preventing our families from actually building wealth if they are racking up student loan debt. Prime example, the average student would graduate at about $ are racking up student loan debt.

Prime example, the average student will graduate about $38,000 in student loan debt. But then, Dave, when we go deeper, a fifth of these young people will graduate with $100,000, $200,000 or more in student loan debt. So a recent survey came out and found out that when these young people graduate, they're going back home. And 31% of them delay moving out of their parents' house because they have student loan debt. That's one-third. That's one-third of our young people. Are not living adult lives.

Are not living adult lives. And your mama's basement is not an adult life. But you went to college to become an adult, to have an adult life. Well, it's part of becoming an adult. You are becoming one, whether you want to do it or not. Yeah. That's what you signed up for, called staying. Well, it's part of becoming an adult. You are becoming one, whether you want to do it or not. Yeah. That's what you signed up for, called staying alive. And here's one that bothered me, Dave, is less than one-third of these young people delay getting married because of student loans.

About 20% of them are saying that, right? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. One out of five. One out of five. And this is why we have Babes at 5 this is why I wrote the book Debt Free Degree because you have these young people going to college to go after the American dream

you have these young people going to college so they can go out there and pursue everything that they want but it's the debt that's delaying them from getting there and what we got to do up front is start educating our young people and really Dave I'm going to say this not really just educating we got to do up front is start educating our young people. And really, Dave, I'm going to say this. I'm going to say this.

Not really just educating. We got to ask the question, is college the right path for your child? And it may or may not be. Bottom line. But if it is, here's how you get into it 100% debt free. Well, we're not against education. Not at all. Education is a good thing.

Absolutely. Sometimes becoming an educated welder makes you $85,000 a year, and you're one year out of high school, and you have four years to earn while someone else is going to school earning nothing. So you're $250,000 ahead before we start the equation. And getting an education in left-handed puppetry, as Rachel says, is a dumb idea. And people go get these useless degrees and act like somehow society owes them something. So we're not talking about that. But we are talking about getting a good, solid academic underpinning to be able to advance your cause, the cause of your life. Yes.

And that's a fine thing. And you can do that at a state university with a basic, good, solid degree that gets you a job. You know? Supply chain people coming out, logistics right now, making 80 grand with an undergrad. I mean, so, you know, you do not, you know, obviously you can go through and get an accounting degree. Obviously you can go through and get a communications degree. Obviously you can get a marketing degree. There's a lot of business stuff you can go through and get an accounting degree. Obviously you can go through and get a communications degree. Obviously you can get a marketing degree. There's a lot of business stuff you can do on one side.

On the other side, there's other specialty things, engineering, architecture. There's all kinds of degrees that are worth the money if you don't pay some crazy butt Ivy League price for it. You can get your money back. It is a good investment. Yes. But all education is not an investment. Some of it's stupid yeah absolutely and my question is what's the roi if you go to this school if you get this degree can

you get a job will it be a good return on your four years and the money that you spent so when i started teaching this stuff uh 30 years ago we would interview people and a survey would tell us uh 98 percent of parents are planning for their kids to go to school okay seven percent were saving for their kids to go to school so in other words all talk no do big hat no cattle right big discussion no actual getting ready to send them school i mean i guess you didn't have a plan how you were going to send them to school. Maybe government welfare was the problem. Or, Dave, did they not save, or were they planning on just taking out student loans? No, they just talked.

In their head, it was a good idea until they went to the pizza place and spent this week's paycheck. You know, or until they needed to go to the dadgum all-inclusive whatever at Cancun. Yeah. And all of a sudden, kids' college takes a back seat because they weren't budgeting for it. They weren't actually freaking doing it. They were discussing it. Nowadays, it's shifted, and there's actually, of the people that say that they think they should be saving, a high percentage are actually doing something about it.

So saving at maybe step five, you know, four, five, and six, we teach you to do together. You're out of debt. You have your emergency fund. You're putting money into retirement is four. Kids' college meaning saving investing for kids college yes that's important yeah but dan i want to say this because you said four five six and seven is all done at the same time we are not saying sacrifice your retirement no i said 15 of your income exactly into retirement i just want to make sure people and then you move on to baby step five. Four is before five. Yes. You'll learn that in college.

Four is first. You put 15% of your income into retirement. And then five, you do kids' college. And then six, with any other money you can find, you pay off the house early. And this is what millionaires are doing. The baby step millionaires, the everyday millionaires that we're talking to all the time, this is how they're living. It's what they're doing.

And then if they got the 529 full and that particular kid doesn't go to school or they get a bunch of scholarships, you can move that money around. You can do different stuff with it. You're not stuck, but you are stuck if you're broke. And here's what millionaires are not doing. They're not taking out parent plus loans. They're not allowing their kids to go out there and sign for student loans. They're saying, no, this is what you're going to do. And if you want me to pay for it, feel me to help you with it.

And you're going to a local community college. You're going to a local in-state. But we're not signing for any loans. Why? Because I love you. Don't allow your your child to make a child decision, a kid decision to an adult choice. No, no, don't do it. You don't get to decide because that's where my girlfriend goes. Oh, Lord.

This is not how you pick a college. But people do. Yeah, they do. People do. I know a lot of them. One girl called. You and I were here on the air a few months ago, and she's like, I want to go to so-and-so because the town is pretty.

Just shoot me. I was laughing at that one, Dave. One of them said, I want to go to this college because my boyfriend is going there. I just wanted to scream. Yeah, it's the same thing. And so, yeah, moms and dads, you have to be good parents and teach them how to go to school, where they can afford it, where you can pay cash for it. You need to save money so that you can cause all of this to happen in your college.

529s, get in touch with one of our SmartVestor pros and you can cause all of this to happen in your college 529s. Get in touch with one of our SmartVestor pros and you can get that done. Guys, this is very doable. Yeah. But you just have to start actually thinking about it and doing something about it. It's very doable. Debt-Free Degree is the book. Yes, sir.

By Anthony O'Neill. This is The Ramsey Show. Imagine a world where people never have to worry about money ever again. At Ramsey Solutions, our mission is to teach people how to get out of debt and build lasting wealth. And if that means we have to take on the toxic money culture that says you need debt to get ahead, then we're okay with that. We've seen millions of lives changed, and we will continue to create digital products and services to help people transform their lives. If you want to join our thousand member team on this crusade, we're currently on the hunt for software engineers with expertise in Ruby on Rails, Java, C Sharp, and front end technologies.

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Open phones at 888-825-5225. Brayden's in Memphis. Hi, Brayden. How are you? Hey, Dave. Hey, Anthony. How y'all doing? Great, man.

How can we help? So, I've got a quick question for you. I'm 21 years old. I have $60,000 cash saved up. I have an $8,000 emergency fund. And me and my wife have been married for almost three years now. We've been renting a house from my dad for about two years now. And he's offered to sell it to us for a pretty generous amount that he was willing to give it to us for. So just appraised for about $215 to $220. And he's willing to sell it to us for $140. Excellent. And I was just wondering,

am I in the position to go on and do that? My only concern is that it is an older house. It's been in our family for 70 years now. And so it is older, but it's in really good shape. Is that something smart that I should do or should I hold off and keep renting? Brandon, what's your household income right now? So our household income is about $55,000 to $60,000. Okay. $55,000 to $60,000. And. $55,000 to $60,000. And you have no other debt?

No debt. Good for you. Well done. You guys got started early, and you did well. Good work. Thank you. Okay. Everything here sounds fine on the numbers.

The only red flag I heard was it's a family heirloom. What happens when you want to move? Well, we've already discussed that, and he's perfectly okay with that. I mean, there's no big connection to it. It was his dad's dad, and they got handed down, and he ended up buying it from someone else that moved into it. And so he bought it from him. So you're not going to have your mother mad or some uncle mad or something like that if you sell it? Absolutely not.

No, sir. Okay. They're not going to win a piece of the profit when you sell it and make that extra $100,000 that he missed out on? No, sir. So I'll take out an $80,000 loan after I put my $60,000 down, and then it will be deeded over to me, and that's it for them. I like it then. Go get it. Yes, I would do that. I definitely would do that. to me and that's it for them. I like it then. Go get it. Yes, I would do that.

I definitely would do that. There's nothing wrong with it at all. And here's the thing. You don't have to live there forever. Sure don't. If the thing starts giving you fits because of its age, make a move later. Ten years from today, your life is going to be way different than it is right now. Yes, sir.

We were actually gifted a a hundred acre farm last year from my grandpa and so our ideal situation is to build over there and really what i was wanting to do instead of paying rent in this house would be putting my money into the equity back into the house that way when we're ready financially to pay cash for the house that we want to build on the farm then we can sell that house and just dump it all into the next house. That's a wonderful plan. All right, beautiful. Now, the only other thing is I want your dad to check with his tax advisor because he is giving you equity in excess of gift tax limits, and so he may need to file a gift tax filing

with his income tax. And if you can remember this phrase, teach him this phrase, a unified estate tax credit. He may want to use some of his estate exemption to be able to give you this gift without paying any taxes. Otherwise, he could get dinged with some gift tax in the event of an audit because he gave you a very, very large gift in excess of what is allowed right now without taxes. And so, you know, that's, you know, the whole process. So have him check with his tax advisor on that and figure out exactly what the best plan is to do that,

the best way to do it. But probably a unified estate tax credit is going to be the best direction. Hey, man, thanks for the call. Open phones at 888-825-5225. You jump in. We'll talk about your life and your money. Anthony O'Neill is my co-host today. John is in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Hey, John, how are you? I'm great. It's a pleasure to speak to both of you. You too. Thank you. So I have a recorded land contract that I lived in. I owe 40 and it's worth 90. And I ended up travel nursing, so I turned it into a rental property. I do go back to the area often.

And I would like to move back there one day and live in it. So my question is, I know you hate land contracts. I hate land contracts. I have an opportunity to get the $40,000 from a credit union. Do it. Just take a personal loan. Do it. Pay it off.

Do it. Okay. Do it, and get the property in your name. The property's not currently in your name. Correct. It's dangerous currently in your name. Correct. It's dangerous. Yeah. Yeah, really dangerous.

I know, but so yeah, I just wanted to make sure taking the personal loan was the right way to do it. Yeah, it's definitely, it's a $40,000 loan, and you know, just a credit union will do it. If they want to put a mortgage against the property, they could. Make sure it's a fixed rate, no closing costs with a credit union will do it. If they want to put a mortgage against the property, they could. Make sure it's a fixed rate, no closing costs with a credit union. It's a tiny little loan. A mortgage company doesn't want to screw with a $40,000 loan. Okay? And so, yeah, a credit union is the way to go.

Fixed rate, no closing costs, no, you know, need an appraisal. I mean, this is a brainless loan it's an it's a no brainer easy easy to make and but you don't you don't want a land contract anthony for folks that don't know the land contract is where you have a it's also called a contract for deed which means the property is not deeded to him yet he has a contract under which he's paying payments and when he pays all the payments meaning pays off the debt then he gets the deed the problem with that is if something happens to the seller like uh they get sued for a traffic accident for 500 million dollars that becomes a

lien on their deed and the deed is not in his name these things are dangerous wow so get it in your name you have way too much equity laying there fifty thousand dollars at risk of the seller accidentally doing something stupid they get an irs lien on them it clouds your title they get all kinds all kinds of things can happen because not titled to you the title is in someone else's name even though you have recorded it you can have an option to purchase a piece of property and record the option. It just lets people know you have an option, but it doesn't keep that seller from messing up the title before you get it in your name. And that's what this is, in a sense. It's an option.

And when he says recorded, that's nice. That lets other people know that the property is tied up, but it does not keep you from getting in a screwed-up mess if the seller does. So, yeah, you go get a loan, get the property in your name ASAP. Okay. Okay. That's what we're talking about there. Love it. Open phones at 888-825-5225.

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, free samples, free shipping. And with the new promos they run all the time, you'll save even more. Use the promo code Ramsey to get the best possible deal. So, Dave, today's question comes from Jacob out of Indiana. He says, my mortgage payment is $910, and my only other debt is a $36,000 loan from my grandfather, which I used to pay for college. My monthly income is $4,000 and I'm currently paying $2,000 a month to him. My fiance wants to help pay my grandfather back to get us out of debt quicker.

Should I let her help with this even though we aren't married yet? Or should we wait until we get married to clean up this debt? Dave, if I was talking directly to the fiance, I would tell her to part that money in the Should we wait until we get married to clean up this debt? Dave, if I was talking directly to the fiance, I would tell her to part that money in the savings account. And then the moment you all get married, cut that check to you. But if you know, if you all don't get married, I would hate for her to be out of that money. So that's my two cents. What I would tell her.

Yeah, there is no way you're not married. there's a we after you're married and so uh help us get out of debt she isn't in debt honey you are uh until she marries you and then she's a we okay so yeah that's exactly right that's exactly how you do it it feels so it feels so different to say no to getting help it's easier to say no to helping yeah well that's true that's true it was a tough it was a tough no for me i was like oh man yeah but here's the thing i mean i the most bizarre one i've ever had of these was i was coaching a young woman and her uh she had paid off a bunch of her fiance's debt and he got killed in a car wreck before they got married. And so what does she do? Does she ask his parents to give her the money back?

No. No. I mean, you're just, it's messed up. You're out of your money. It's messed up. And so that was the most bizarre and sad one. But more times than that, it's not that, it's a breakup. Yes.

And sometimes this back and forth stuff before you're married causes relationship problems, facilitates the breakup. Yeah. We'll be right back. Anthony O'Neill Ramsey personality is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Chris and Steph are with us. They are in Minneapolis, Minnesota with a debt-free scream. What's up, guys? Woo!

Well, we're feeling pretty debt-free. How are you, well you sound like you are that's awesome how much did you pay off we paid off 66 000 in 41 months good for you and uh what was your range of income during that time our range was 71 000 to 80 000 good what do you guys do for a living? Well, we're both teachers, and we do a lot of side stuff. Steph runs a children's theater company throughout the year. Through the summer, she does gig working with the grocery delivery, and I manage to donate plasma along the side. Through my gap in the year, I've found work through scuba diving valet country club grounds crew at the park and delivered packages scuba diving in minnesota

sounds cold it's cold minus the summer man even in the summer i mean i've done some freshwater diving in tennessee in the, and it's still cold. Oh, man. That's a lot of wetsuits. Good for you guys. What kind of debt was the $66,000? Well, $55,000 was student loans. Before we were married, it was my loans, but it was ours now.

The rest was the car loan, tires, because I didn't know how to save money, and engagement ring, pretty much everything but credit cards. Oh, okay. So how long have you guys been married? We're still normal, right? Yeah, absolutely. Three and a half years. So that sounds suspiciously like 41 months.

So you get married, and it was game on. Tell me your story. What happened? We started Financial Peace University. This was before Ramsey Plus, four summers ago. We were engaged. I read The Complete Guide to Money. We listened to your show. We learned a lot. It strengthened our marriage. And then we were gazelle intense from there. We had a baby along the way, so we had to cash flow and slow it down a bit. But once we caught up, we became another level of gazelle intense.

There was another setback called 2020, and that happened. And we didn't know what happened. So we paused and saved up. But then we resumed almost like nothing happened. Wow. I'm proud of you guys. Well done. How old are you two?

29. All right. Now, I have a question. You said you paused during COVID. Would you say COVID was the hardest thing throughout this journey or would something else be the hardest thing throughout this journey? We just paused just for the safety of if we ever had to go back a baby step. But we definitely took priority in paying off the debt, despite whatever situation that you were in. It's definitely going to save us more in the future. You know, there's always the pressure of, you know, we have to borrow more, save less.

But I don't know. We just we followed your advice. We stuck to the budget. We tithed along the way. Tithing did not set as big a setback as we first thought. And that's just, we want to let your listeners know. That's awesome. I'm curious, as millennials, were some of your millennial friends looking at you a little weird, like you're crazy? Yeah, we're the anti-credit card couple. I've been pretty public with that. But after financial peace,

I mean, the key to getting out of debt is making that plan and communicating and saying no to credit. And we still have to say no to credit. We get those giant zeros in the mail with zero APR, zero money down. But just build those small habits of not getting separate bank accounts or yours and my debts. And so we just want life to be simplified. And, you know, the flyer points aren't looking too great for us. The free stuff we can't say no to, but we just choose no payments either way. Yeah. Amen. So the, you know, the interesting thing I'm hearing, we're reading studies and things about millennials,

and our experience with your age group, but we're getting a huge rush of 20-somethings onto the show here. And so we're really, really hearing from a bunch of you guys. But the stuff I'm reading is saying that the 20-somethings are real anti-credit card to start with. They didn't need me to get there. They got there on their own. Are you seeing a lot of your buddies that way or are a bunch of them just loving credit cards? What do you think, Steph? I think it's a good question.

Do we have friends who are really into credit cards? We definitely do just for perks like gas and like chris said earlier um airplane flyer miles and so they think they're getting the deal more that we share our opinion on it we're they think they're getting yeah it's it's designed to really i guess work against you when it looks like it's a benefit yeah absolutely yeah i mean it's that whole thing you know if we can just get you in here and playing with snakes and one of them will bite you so um that's oh wow okay cool very cool so proud of you guys who were your biggest cheerleaders thank you oh we had a lot of cheerleaders you know um our parents i mean we just uh started this journey ourselves but you know your name is a household name. We're just getting closer to that seventh baby step, living like no one else.

But it's kind of nice to taste some beans and rice once in a while. Get a little nostalgic, you know, early newlywed years. Thrift shopping, highly recommend. It can't pass up a good deal. I don't care how much money you got. I mean, it can't pass up a good deal. I love it. That's so fun.

Well, well well done you guys we've got a copy of the legacy journey to take you on to the next step with that new baby and that's what you're doing you've changed your family tree leaving a legacy heading on to baby step seven and debt free all the way way to go and another copy of the total money makeover great i'm sorry it feels great we're proud of you way to go also a copy of the total money makeover uh for you to give away to someone and pay it forward and get somebody else moving along here so very very well done chris and steph from minneapolis 66 000 paid off in the first 41 months of their new marriage had a baby along the way make it 71 to 80 count it down let's hear a debt-free

scream three two one i love it that is funny i mean that is awesome 29 euros man i i I'm just, I'm loving it, Dave. I'm loving it. Well, a 21-year-old calling and paying, putting $60,000 down on a house. On a house. I mean, this millennial generation. Ding, ding. They're hearing the message. Well, you know, I've always said there's two types, awesome and sucks.

There's no middle ground with millennials. They're either dumber than a rock. Oh, Dave. Or they're the best kid on the planet and they're doing everything smart. They don't do mediocre. They do stupid with steroids or they do wise with steroids. Hold on, Dave. They do. I'm in

that millennial generation. Well, you're one of the smart ones. Okay. You're not in the millennial generation. I am. You're older than that. I'm 36. That's not millennial. Yes, it is. James, am I right? You That's not millennials. Yes, it is. James, am I right? You millennials are getting old. Hey, hold up.

We're barely on the bubble. Yeah, yeah. Thank you, James. But hold on. Dave just called me old. If I'm getting old, what is he? I'm ancient and wise and due respect. Hold up, man.

Hold up. I'm still young. I'm entitled. I'm young at the heart i'm young i'm young you know all right open phones at 888-825-5225 here's the funny thing about it as long as we've been doing this i mean for 30 years i've always heard every you know gen xers yeah they were the ones they were the millennials back when i started. Gen Xers. Oh, those Gen Xers. Those skateboarders. Yep. Oh, my gosh.

And the baby boomers. Oh, they're just dumber than a rock. They spin, and they're all about greedy. What was the skateboarders, Dave? That was the Gen Xers. It was Blake Thompson. Oh. Yeah, I could see Blake Thompson riding a skateboard.

Oh, he's definitely a big-time skateboard guy. Big surfer, too, still. He's an old guy doing it now, but that's what Gen Xers are. They're old now. So what is Pete, then? Because Pete drives. I mean, he does a skateboard, too.

Pete's a big surfer. I would imagine Pete is a Gen Xer. Is he? Yeah. He'd be a Gen Xer, right? I love it. Then there's Gen Y. Yep.

And then there's the millennials. So I don't know what Gen Y got accused of, but every generation's been accused of having their slackers. Every generation. Yeah. And now Boomer is like a, that's like a name you call old people.

You're just a boomer. That's so funny. I'm glad you know you're a boomer, Dave. Definitely. I'm a total card-carrying boomer. And dad jokes. That's me. This is The Ramsey Show. auto insurance companies love to play the game where they see just how high they can jack up

your rates for no apparent reason, right? This is fun. Good news, it's not hard to beat them at their own game. It's called shopping them. All you got to do is check on your policy every year or two and make sure you're getting the best price on your coverage. And if you haven't done that, you're really probably not. At the break, we were out here. We just met one of our endorsed local provider insurance agents from muskegon michigan just a minute ago these elps are independent insurance agents which means they shop among

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Text AUTO to 33789 and put a trusted ELP insurance agent on your team, an endorsed local provider. That's auto to 33789. Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey Personality, is my co-host today. Jake is in Dallas, Texas. Hi, Jake. How are you? Doing great. How are you guys doing?

Better than I deserve. What's up? Happy to hear it. So I am currently 22 years old, self-employed, and I'm getting to a point where I really want to start paying off all my debt, building up a retirement plan, and just overall being more wise and more strict with my budgeting. However, I'm self-employed, so my income varies, although it is steady. But I just wanted to see what you would recommend as a method to build a budget when you are self-employed, and the money doesn't come in

as consistently, but you just want to stick to that budget and be as efficient with your money as possible. So what's your taxable income in 2021? 2021, I would estimate my personal taxable income around $80,000. Good for you. Well done. What are you doing?

What kind of business? I do a lot of post-production work remotely for different film production companies around the world. Okay. Any employees? No, it's just me. Good for you. Well done. Well done.

Well, I think the biggest thing is not how to attack the debt. You're going to attack the debt just like anyone else would with your income working the debt snowball, right? Smallest to largest and get after it in that order. Okay? The question is how to manage the irregular income. The first thing I would do is go get Ramsey Plus and get a free membership, a free trial membership going and get the EveryDollar Premium version going because the EveryDollar app will help you do this.

What you can do is you can just go in and adjust it as your income moves around. And so that's a fairly easy way to do it old school the principle that you want to use even when you're using the every dollar app is a prioritized spending plan okay now what that sounds like is this uh in your case uh you have a a fairly predictable stream of income, but if we wanted to go all the way to zero, we could start with and say, okay, if I can only afford to do one thing this month, what's that one thing? And you put a number one beside that on your budget. That's food, by the way. Okay?

If I can only afford to do one other thing, what would I do? And you put a two beside that. I'll tell you what that is. It's utilities. Because if you eat and keep the lights on, you deal with the landlord later okay okay in worst case scenario but you're not even that far down you said you have steady it's just unpredictable correct and sometimes it's a regular in terms of when the money comes in but just wanting to so anyway you go all the way down that list, and when you get towards the bottom of that list is where the action takes place in your world. And that is that when you get to number 16, you do 16 before you do 17. And you put the debt snowball stuff in those bottom.

The extra money on debt moves down after you've taken care of the necessities of life. Okay. And they're ahead of going on vacation because you're in baby step two. You're not going on vacation. Right, right. And they're ahead of going out to eat because you're in baby step two and you're not going out to eat. How much debt are you in right now, Jake?

If you don't count, I just bought a house. Excluding the house. Including the house? Not including the house, not including the house, excluding. I would guess business about 7,000, uh, business debt, and then about 20,000 personal debt, including my vehicle, including as far as in their vehicles inside the $20,000. Correct. Okay. What kind of vehicle is it?

It's a 4Runner, Toyota 4Runner. It's just, it's big enough and efficient enough for what I need. Yeah, and you can afford to do every bit of thing, what you're doing. You just need to get it paid off. And so $27,000 makes you debt-free except your house? Yeah. Correct. You make $80,000 and you're single and $22,000?

I'm married. Okay. What does she make? So she is also kind of in between jobs right now. We're looking to move kind of closer to back home with family. So her income fluctuates a little bit, but roughly $2,000 a month later right now. Okay. So you got $100,000 income.

You have $27,000 in debt. You pay off your $27,000 inside of one year. Absolutely. That sounds good. $2,500 to $3,000 a month at least towards this debt. Boom. Smack it in the head. Now that's assuming a steady flow of this income and it's not a real volatile income. But that should be the average over the 12 months.

You should be debt free in 12 months easy. Really a little sooner actually. But the key ingredient to this Dave is what you said earlier. He has to get on a budget. He has to literally sit down and write out his priorities yeah if you do not do that you will not get out of debt because you're not going to know where your money's going so sit down with your wife and y'all figure this thing out and i heard you say you you may want to be moving soon i would focus on this before i move So that way you're not even more unstable. Go ahead and get out of debt.

Then let's talk about moving after we get out of debt. That's not a bad idea at all. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Michael is with us in Waco, Texas. Hey, Michael, what's up? Doing well. How are you, Dave? Better than I deserve.

How can we help? Well, first of all, I want to say thank you, because I am a very indecisive person by nature, and just having the streamlined babysit process has brought a lot of peace of mind to me and my household and my wife. So thank you for the work that you've done. Thank you. So my question is kind of career-related.

When COVID hit, I made a pretty drastic career change from teaching piano lessons with a music degree to working in the retirement plan industry. You know, it was the first time I had ever made a salary because I was self-employed before that. So they had me in sales, like their sales department at first. And I earned the first like kind of company required certification a lot faster than they expected, considering I had a music degree. Plus, I think they realized that I enjoy numbers more than people sometimes, so they moved me to the actuarial department. So my question is, I'm coming up on my one-year anniversary working for this company, and I think I'm at a little bit of a crossroads. On one hand, I could stick with more of the administrative work that

I've been doing for them. And on the other hand, I think my employer would be pretty excited and willing to pay for my actuarial certification training and the exams for me to actually become an actuary. The downside to that is that I need to put in a lot of extra hours every day outside of work studying. And I just don't know if my educational background is sufficient for that considering like i said i have a music degree um and it would take several years to earn that certification i just feel like it would be taking a lot more of a risk if i wasn't married uh this would be a different conversation because i would be willing to take on that risk. The risk is time. Right.

The risk is time away from the television. Whoop-de-doop-dee. It's no risk. Well, I mean, I'm not sure whether or not I have the capability to, because I don't know if I would need to take it. Yes, you do. They would have already fired you. They're not going to let you sit in an actuarial chair if you can't do math for a year.

And you think they're willing to pay for you to get the certification, which also means they think you can do it. I mean, do you feel incompetent or just lacking in confidence? Probably the latter. Yeah, that's what I'm hearing. I think you're better than you think you are. That's what I think. Oh, by the way, there's a lot of tie-in, if you haven't noticed,

between music and math, or so I hear. Yes, there definitely is. I've always had a tendency for numbers. I mean, my dad was an engineer. Dude, you're more of a stud than you think you are. Throw your shoulders back, rip your shirt off, show the S on your chest. Let's go. I'm shaking.

I kind of have a... You can do it, man. You can do it. I promise you, you can do it. Don't you think he can do it? Yeah, he can take his shirt off. You are wrong. You are wrong.

Do you have an S on your chest, Anthony? I sure do. I do too, buddy. What are you saying? What are you saying? It stands for super old boomer. You are wrong. Do you have an S on your chest, Anthony? I sure do. I do too, buddy. What are you saying? What are you saying? It stands for super old boomer. That's funny.

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