The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Move Out of My Grandma's House? (Hour 2)

Episode Date: March 29, 2021

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🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studios, it's the Ramsey Show. Where dad is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice. Christy Wright, Ramsey Personality No. 1 best-selling author, is my co-host today as we take your questions about your life and about your money. Mike is in Pensacola, Florida to start off this hour. Hey, Mike, how can we help? Hey, Dave and Christy, thanks for taking my call. How are we all doing? Better than we deserve. What's up? Well, my wife and I are debt-free minus our house. We have an emergency fund.

We're about to start investing in a 401K. And don't worry, we do not own Beanie Babies. We're good. So I'm calling about our home. We're looking to relocate to a better school district in a safer neighborhood. And you know real estate, of course, and this market's crazy. I know nothing about it. So we're looking to see if we should sell now and buy later,

being that we have the available funds for a down payment and we have a place to live in the interim for free. My father-in-law's house, he's being very generous. As far as future predictions, will the market go down later? Should we sell our house, go live with him, and then buy later? What are your thoughts on that? I do not think this is a bubble. Okay.

And that would be the only way it would go down. I think the craziness will slow, and the rate of increase in prices will slow, but I don't think this is a false bubble that's going to course-correct, and the house prices in Pensacola, Florida, are going to go down dramatically any time in the next decade. Okay, understood. What that means is if you buy and step out of the market, what that means is as you step out of the market, every day you wait to get back in, the prices are going up for the rest of your life.

So it's definitely not a good idea to sell now and buy later. It's a good idea to sell now and buy now. Sounds like it. Nothing wrong with that because it's an even swap. You're going to get the benefit of the heated market on the sale, and you're going to have the problem of the heated market on the buy. So I'm curious about this, Dave, because we got some calls like this last week, and I was talking to you about this even off air.

But are you thinking there's going to be any kind of dip? Because right now, like Nashville specifically, with these cash buyers coming from California, so it's so much, people are paying so much over appraisal and list price. You're not seeing that go down? You're thinking it's just going to level out and then keep going? I mean, I'm curious about this because we hear about this all the time. The only thing that dropped in 2008, 2008 is the first time in my 35 years of having a real estate license

that prices across the nation went down. It's the only time I've ever seen it was in 2008. Now, I've seen particular markets bubble up and pop, and those have to do with particular things in those markets. But, you know, Florida does not have any of those issues. I don't, you know, for instance, I'll give you an example. I don't know what's going to happen in California because there's a mass exodus. People are leaving.

There's a stream of U-Hauls of interstate going down the interstate, leaving the state as fast as they can possibly flee. And they're going to Texas, Tennessee, Florida, and buying houses. And so what's that going to do to that real estate market? Eventually, if enough of that continues, mathematics tells us that that will hurt prices in California. It hasn't yet. California is quite hot.

You put a house on the market, it'll sell in three days right now in L.A. And so it's not like all these people leaving have affected. There's a dadgum many people there that you take a while to empty the state. But they are pouring out of there for sure. And those of us that are in the markets that they are coming to know it. I mean, we go out here to commercial breaks right here, and I haven't been out of this room to go out and meet people at a commercial break. I don't think a single time in five months that I didn't meet somebody from California that's here looking at houses.

I mean, every dadgum. And so that's an example of a particular market that has unique problems, in that case, created by the governor. And because COVID is not worse in California than it is in Tennessee and Texas. And so it's just absolute BS. But the, uh, uh, but the bottom line is, you know, and we've seen this before in other markets where, um, you know, something unique happens, a, uh, uh, a, uh, manufacturing plant shuts down and it was a, that labor base was a big part of that market, then you can see that market correct.

But overall, just because it's going up does not mean it's going to come down. Matter of fact, you have a hard time proving that. You know, I can think back. Again, I got my real estate license in 1978. I have seen very few times that you've seen prices go down from where they were four months before and stay down for more than 20 seconds. Yeah. I just wasn't sure if it was such a unique situation because of the amount of overpaying right now. Well, they're overpaying, but are they?

If enough of them are doing it, that is now the price. That's the new bar yeah and so the definition when i went through appraisal class and when i was getting my degree in real estate the definition of value of market value is what a willing buyer is able is willing to give a willing seller where neither party is in duress so in other words if you're buying a foreclosure that's someone in duress you wouldn't count that in an appraisal but if two perfectly healthy situations and they're paying a whole lot even more than asking price then you know where we're getting multiple offers on a property and that kind of stuff you know put it on the market you get 30 offers in a weekend those kinds of stories are happening all over then that is the new value so when people say i'm not going to overpay for a house they're not

overpaying that's the new well i mean you know you're you're overpaying what it's what it's what it would have brought two months ago right right right and you're overpaying what it would have brought monday yeah but by tuesday yeah i don't know yeah because these prices are being driven up by this supply yeah because what has happened is with the lumber shortage right it's driven the price of lumber up the cost of new housing is going up new housing is also more harder to get out of the ground and so we have we have an inventory problem and so anytime there's a shortage of anything and there's more people chasing that thing than there is thing you that's a supply demand curve from the seventh grade economics class. It drives price up. Yeah.

That even works with Beanie Babies. Yeah. You know? When too few people, I mean, when a big bunch of dollars are chasing too few things, then those things go up. Demand, yeah. Anything that has scarcity, in other words, you'd always see the price go up. And so what will happen is, is this market will calm down as the inventory gets rebuilt, as the lumber factories get to building, get to making lumber again at the same pace or an increased pace to offset this.

And the prices come back, or at least the lumber prices will come back down. That I do think. But that's not going to necessarily affect real estate values overall. So anyway, yes, I don't have any problem with you buying right now or selling right now, but I would do both of whatever you're going to do. Get out of the market. Whatever you're going to do. I mean, I'm enjoying watching the real estate that I own go way up in value.

It's just awesome. I like it. So, you know, and that's the stuff. So, my goodness. Yeah, that's what I would do. I think it's time for you to move, sir. And I would. And I would buy when you move.

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You pick your path. Go to Zander.com or call 800-356-4282. Zander will guide you through the whole thing, keep it simple, and find you the best rates. That's Zander.com or 800-356-4282. Christy Wright Ramsey Personality is my co-host. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Nick is with us in New York City. Hi, Nick. How are you? Hey, Dave, Christy. Thanks for taking my call.

Sure. How can we help? So I'm feeling a little stuck because of prices in New York City. So I'm 24 years old. I just started working as a software engineer about six months ago. And right now I live in my grandmother's house. She's graciously allowed me to live here for almost nothing since college, which I, you know, really appreciate. But I'm definitely ready to move out. So what I want to do is buy a condo with that 20% down to avoid PMI. But because of prices in New York, I'm not sure if I'll be able to afford that down payment for, like, another three years. Or if I rent with friends, like, that would just push the savings goal, like, further down the road.

So I need a little advice on what I should do there. What are you making? So it's going to be about $100 gross, and it's like $6,000 per month after taxes. Yeah. Not bad for 24, man. Well done. Got a great career ahead of you. You're obviously not only a software engineer, you're obviously a good one.

Well done. Very cool. Yeah, you are in a very, very expensive real estate market, at least for now. I don't know that it will remain that way. I think delaying buying in New York City would be a real good idea right now because that is one of the markets that we may see some price adjustment because of the collapse of so many businesses in the area and the collapse of the economy in the area

and the number of people leaving the market. So I personally would not be in a hurry to buy there. And so I think saving some money is a good idea. And, you know, how did you end up, where are your parents? How did you end up at your grandmother's? So my family lives in Georgia, but my grandmother has a house in New York, and it was easy for me to get to college, you know, if I lived up here. So, you know, everything just worked out for me to get to college you know if I lived up here so you know everything

just worked out for me to stay in New York but she lives in the same home uh yeah this is like her summer house she uh goes back to the Caribbean uh you know for half the year so right now she's enjoying the warmth down there hmm okay so you have six months a year that she's enjoying the warmth down there. Hmm. Okay, so you have six months a year that she's not there roughly, give or take. Right, but we do have other tenants in the house. So some of the rooms are being rented. It's like I do live with people. I'm ready to get out on my own at 24 and kind of start life on ourself.

Okay, go wrench or something. It's not going to delay you that much. Your career is not – three years from now, you're not going to be making $100,000 anymore. You're going to be making more, don't you think? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, considerably more. You should be on a pretty heavy uptick i don't know christy what are you thinking well it's whenever people ask questions about should i do this and some type of sacrifice it's like it's not bad that you're living there but you said

yourself you're ready to move out and you're 24 years old you're a young man you want independence and i don't blame you. So to Dave's point, it's not going to set you that much back financially whenever you're ready to buy. You wouldn't buy right now anyway. And then in the meantime, for those three years, you have the dignity of your own place and doing your own thing and paying a little bit of rent. And I think it's going to be worth it on the journey to you to get to be out on your own. So there are some sacrifices that's like, yeah, let's make this sacrifice because we're going to be able to save some money. There's other ones like, hey, this isn't going to set us back that much, but it's going to give us the independence and dignity along the way.

And that's worth it. And I think this is one of those things. You need to find something fairly inexpensive to rent. We're not trying to spend a whole bunch of money here because the more you spend on rent, the less you're going to have for a down payment. So that part of your equation is actually correct. But is it going to slow you down or keep you from buying because you came out and, you know, got a rental? No.

So I'm going to look for something inexpensive. We're not trying to make a statement with your rental property quite. If you do make a statement, the statement is, I'm cheap. That's the statement you're going for. Yeah. It's not the, I'm cool. Don't make an I'm cool statement with where you go to live, all right? And don't justify it and don't rationalize it and don't go, well, it's classed to Eric and don't give me all that crap.

Because the more you spend on rent, the less you're going to have for the down payment or the longer it's going to take you to buy. And we don't want to do that. But I think it's worth it for you to just in your personal development to uh go ahead and make that move i agree with christy so hey thank you for the call open phones at 888-825-5225 also in new york city mike is with us hey mike how are you hey better than i deserve dave thank you sure how can i help sure uh so i have a question for you uh i did something a few months ago that i know you would advise against but uh it was before I found your podcast. So don't be mad at me. I'm not mad at you. It didn't hurt me.

That's true. So I did a cash out finance when the rates went real low and I was able to drop my mortgage rate over a full point. And I figured, hey, while I'm at it, why not take out some extra cash to have? But now I have this extra debt that I have to carry. So my question is, while I'm at it, why not take out some extra cash to have? But, you know, now I have this extra debt that I have to carry. So my question is, should I go ahead and repay this thing back and pretend like it never happened, or should I try to invest it? I got it at a pretty low rate. I'm just trying to see what I should do with it. Well, I agree with you.

I wouldn't have done that, but now we're there. So we're not going to – that's water under the bridge. That milk is spilled. So you're out of debt except this home? No, I'm on baby steps four, five, and six. That's what I mean. You're out of debt except the home. Yep.

And you've got your emergency fund in place. And you're already putting 15%, not counting this money. And so regardless of where the money came from, if you have a pile of money and you're in putting 15 not counting this money and so regardless of where the money came from if you have a pile of money and you're in four five and six you would say you're going to use it on four five and six fours underway you have children yes okay is there college fund underway oh yeah it sure is uh you know still saving towards it but i have a good amount for them okay then baby step six is pay off the house early, right? Right, exactly.

And so we would use, if you got a bonus equal to the amount in your savings in excess of your emergency fund, you would throw it at the house, wouldn't you? Yes, I would. So I just throw it at the house. Yeah, the problem with, you know, the money thing was the closing costs were about $20,000. So I feel like I'm just basically, you know, kind of with the money thing was the closing costs were about $20,000. So I feel like I'm just basically kind of throwing that money away. Yeah, every time I do something stupid and it costs me money, I call it stupid tax. Yeah.

But you can't get that money back. No, that's true. What I did was I put the money in a mutual fund for now to try to let it grow. It doesn't matter. That's all I had. It doesn't matter. That's just not a path that people use to build to let it doesn't matter while i had it it doesn't matter that's just not that's not a path that people use to build wealth it doesn't work and so we don't you know never

i've never talked to a millionaire said i borrowed on my house as much as i could possibly borrow my entire life and i refinanced it off and took cash out and put it in a mutual fund and that made me rich i've never talked to a single millionaire that told me they did that. Yeah. So it's not a methodology that works. So even though it's a very costly mistake, that cost is even under, you can't undo the cost. So the only question is now, do you want to invest in mutual funds, or do you want to work our plan and work your baby step six? That's the only question you've got. And then you've got to decide that.

But if it was me, obviously obviously my plan the thing we teach here at ramsey is we will put excess cash that you've got this non-retirement funds from any source onto the house and pay it off as soon as possible well and mike i think you know that i think you know that probably by listening to the show and what i would guess dave and maybe this is just a hunch but sometimes we i've done this in my life with whenever I've made a mistake with money is I resist doing something that's going to make me face the fact that I lost that money.

So it's like putting it back on the house makes me kind of face the fact that it's the $20,000. So I'd rather put it over here because then I can sort of sideways justify that it wasn't totally maybe. I think I figured out a way to make this okay. Turn the other way

and pretend that $20,000 didn't happen. If I put it back on the house, it's like, oh, I've got to totally face it. Let's just face it, Mike. It is. It happened. Bite the bullet. Put it on the house and just move on.

Rip the Band-Aid off. You're right. You're right. That's exactly what it is. It's emotionally. Hey, you've got to admit it. But it's like, you know, the car's gone down in value. I don't know whether to sell it. Well, it's gone down in value. I don't know whether to sell it.

Well, it's gone down in value. Either way. When you sell it, you admit it. Right. You have to face it. That's it. That's the same kind of thing. That's the same issue exactly.

You nailed that. Well done. This is the Ramsey Show. We'll be right back. Christy Wright Ramsey Personality is my co-host today. I am Dave Ramsey, your host. This is The Ramsey Show. In the lobby of Ramsey Solutions on the debt-free stage, Nathan and Allison are with us. Hey, guys. How are you? Good.

How are you, Dave? Great. If you're on the debt-free stage, it must mean you're debt-free. How much did you pay off? We paid off $124,000. Awesome. Way to go. How long did this take? About 30 months. Good for you.

And your range of income during that time? So we started at about $70,000. That was Nate when he graduated. And then I graduated and it was about $120,000. And then we ended up door dashing on the side. And then I picked up a lot of extra hours at my job, and then we ended at about $140,000. Wow. Awesome. Doubled your income. Yeah. Yeah, with all that.

The door dashing, the extra hours, hard work, everything. What do you guys do for a living? I'm a nurse. Mm-hmm. And I'm a mechanical engineer. Very good. Two great careers. And, yeah, you do have the ability to pick up some extra work, particularly during this 30 months.

Wow. Yep. Cray cray time. Yeah. Wow wow what kind of debt was the 124 000 it was mainly student loans and then in including that we had a small credit card loan in the college you know as i was getting ready to graduate i got a new internship at the job i'm currently working at so with that internship and including some benefits, and some of that was like a 401k plan and things like that. I quickly realized I don't know anything about investing or money management. And so I went to Google and said, I've got to learn more about this kind of thing.

So I found your guys' program. I started to listen to it. And the more I listened to it, I, you know, I started making more sense. You know, I followed the baby steps and, you know, quickly realized, Oh my, we're doing this out of, you know, out of order, you know, right. So yeah, we're jumping out of order by trying to jump into investment. We got to tackle these loans before we dive into that. So with that, we followed the baby step plan. We wanted to live like a broke college kid, keep living like that while we made our new income. So I introduced that to Allison and

then she had some thoughts of her own on that. Yeah. I was not really on board. So I had heard of you. Actually, i remember in high school my parents at the time were taking fpu and all i had heard was your name and that they had mentioned they were never going to co-sign a loan for any of us kids and i was like so sad i was like like who is this dave guy like i do not like him and that's the only thing that's the only thing that I'd heard about you. I love it. So then when Nate had mentioned it, I was like, no, I don't want to do that. Everything I've heard about him is terrible. But then he started showing me.

He punishes people. All he says is no, no, no, no. Yeah. So he started trying to convince me and it took some time, but I realized that you're not all that bad. How many people have that story, Dave? A lot of people. A lot. To know me is to love me, but from a distance, oh, it's a problem.

That's awesome. That's awesome. What was the hardest part? Once you decided to commit, y'all are both on the same page. What was the hardest part about making that change? I feel like for probably both of us staying focused, we both started this as soon as we graduated. So all of our friends from college

were starting their jobs, making more money. And when you make more money, you want to buy a house, buy a car, all that stuff. And it's very easy for us to want to do that too. But, um, we realized that that was not the end goal and yeah, staying focused for sure.

Yeah. Just remembering, like I said, that just to be patient and focused that, you know, we didn't get into this debt overnight, you know, it,

you know, we picked it up. It's not going to just disappear overnight either. So we're in the business of crockpots, not microwaves. There you go. How long have you all been married? Almost two years. Okay, so you started this process.

So we were engaged. And yeah, he kind of did it on his own for a little bit. And then I got on the page after that. It made him an unfun date. One more time that Dave Ramsey calls her to be denied something i love it that's great way to go you guys i'm so proud of you how's it feel feels good if yeah it feels weird still like it's um we live like broke college kids for so long and i feel like it's um hard to remember like hey if you want to get that more expensive thing it's okay now because you're

not free like you can do that yeah we got we got some room in the budget too yeah because you're both making really good money now right and when you started this process you were just starting your careers and and you hadn't even entered the nursing world yet so yeah pretty incredible so now you're sitting with a you know a hundred and a half income probably from this point forward and no payments in the world you will do whatever you want to do right yes sir i love it well congratulations you guys thank you all right so when people ask you how'd you do that what do you tell them the key is um to remember the end goal and to let anything like it's short term so um there is an end and you can do it um and that anyone can it. It's not a way of life.

Yeah. Yep. It's live like no one else so that later I can live and give like no one else. Yep. And just staying focused on that budget. You know, you create a plan, come up with a plan, and part of that plan is probably going you enter a process of some kind, whether it's a prescription, a pharmacology thing, or whether it's a series of mathematical formulas that cause a bridge to be able to stand up. You said mechanical engineering, but maybe not. But, I mean, you still, you know, you get a result from having done a certain thing. Yep. And so following a plan to get the positive result is both how you're both trained academically, right? Yep.

So it's easy in that regard because it's just the way your brains are wired up. Yeah. So now you just apply it to the next thing, right? Yep. And see how wealthy we can become and how generous we can become. It's going to be so awesome. You guys are incredible. Great job.

So what are you, what, 27, 28? We're 26. 26. Wow. And completely debt free. Way to go, guys. That's amazing. Who was your biggest cheerleaders?

Our parents, but to be honest, we didn't have a lot of cheerleaders. A lot of people looked down on us, honestly, and thought that this was weird. It is. So many people told us, you guys are so young. You're never going to be debt-free for stuff. Why would you even want to be debt-free? That's not normal. And I feel like we would go home

and talk about it together, and it would almost get us more fired up, like this is going to happen. And now it happened, and it's awesome to say that. That's right. And all those people that have all those payments, you don't have those payments. All those people that thought those people that have all those payments you don't have those payments all those people that thought you were crazy they get

payments you don't have yeah they're going to start coming around now wanting to know how you did it can you teach us how to do that yeah that's what they're going to say the next thing that's going to happen plus plus mom and dad who refused to co-sign for any loans they are super excited about this right they're going touchdown baby touchdown they're like welcome back welcome back i love it. Well, well done, you guys. Very, very well done. We got a copy of Rachel Cruz's book, Know Yourself, Know Your Money, her latest New York Times bestseller.

And it is an incredible book. You'll enjoy it. So we're so proud of you guys. Congratulations. Thank you. All right. It's Nathan and Allison, Rockford, Illinois. Wow, $124,000 paid off in 30 months,

making $70,000 up to $140,000. Count it down. Let's hear a debt-free scream. Three, two, one. We're debt-free! Yeah! Awesome. Congratulations, you guys.

I love it. That's amazing. The Bible says, No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but it yields a harvest of righteousness. The ability to delay pleasure for a greater good. Living like no one else so that later you can live and give like no one else.

Adults, devise a plan and follow it. Children, do what feels good. There's emotional maturity to people who learn how to sacrifice for a greater goal. And there's such a theme today in this slow and steady, this sticking with it, focusing over time, sticking with it, sticking with it, sticking with it, and how it pays off. It's not this quick win. It's not this all of a sudden you flip a switch and it's easy. There's not a magic pill like we've talked about in business or finances or life. But if you stick with it, then you yield the results, the harvest of righteousness we're talking about. We're talking about whether it's

in your finances or even in your character. Over time, the discipline pays off. Well, and it becomes second nature. Yeah. It becomes your new way of living. It gets easier. That's right. It drills new grooves in your brain. That's right. It drills new grooves in your brain. That's right. And you have a whole different, the neuroscience backs it up, you know. So it's just beautiful. Well done, you guys. They can do anything now.

Yeah. 26. Yeah, they can do anything now. 26. This is The Ramsey Show. Doing your taxes sucks. But what makes it even worse is that trusted brands like TurboTax are actually screwing you with shady sales and marketing tactics that are designed to put more of your money in their wallet. So we decided to expose this 800-pound gorilla in an all-new podcast called The Fine Print. The hidden truth to keeping this podcast, The Fine Print, is hidden truth to keeping this podcast. The Fine Print is going to be done every so often.

George Campbell and I do the first one. We're going to pull back the curtain on TurboTax and show you exactly how they're taking advantage of you. Plus, we'll teach you a better, easier way to do your taxes, one that keeps you from going deep in debt. Now, here's the thing. The fine print, the new podcast called The Fine Print, is going to constantly be doing exposés on these industries that are screwing people. And we're going to dig into them. It's our little investigative reporting arm here. And we're going to dig into these things and show you what The Fine Print says. And you can get a sneak peek of the first episode in the Ramsey Show podcast feed on Spotify,

the Ramsey Network app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. So we're going to give you a little sneak peek, and then we'll do the official launch of the Fine Print podcast, the new podcast that we're doing from Ramsey Networks called the Fine Print. Because that's the old saying, they get you in the fine print, right? Yep, and no one reads it. The other thing about the tax companies is I think a lot of the average consumer looks to tax companies to say, oh, well, this is a trusted source.

This is someone that is objective. They're going to help me. They're experts in money, taxes, whatever. And they then look to them for advice. They get bad advice. They make bad decisions. And they don't realize what's going on behind the scenes. So I think this is so powerful that you guys are pointing this out and teaching people this. Well, they sell a lot of loans.

Yeah, and they don't – but the average person – They're in the lending business more than the tax prep business. Tax prep business is just front door. But when someone's coming there, they're not on guard against it, is what I'm saying? Yeah, that's the point. Versus like a credit card company, you'd be more on guard against. And so it happens so sneakily. And so you don't see it happening.

Oh, they're just helping me. Oh, this is what I need to do. They're showing me what I need to do, and this is what I need to do. No, that's not what you need to do. It's a terrible plan. It's all in the fine print. Brian is with us in Rochester, New York. Hey, Brian, welcome to the Ramsey Show.

Hey, thanks for your wisdom. Really appreciate all that you do. Our pleasure. How can we help? So I'm in kind of a conundrum and I wanted to get your advice. I have about $98,000 in cash on hand, $150,000 in a retirement account, 51 years old. I owe $61,000 on my business mortgage. That's the only debt that I have other than a couple of car loans, and I'm wondering if I should pay off the business debt or invest that money into my retirement. I'm afraid that I just don't have enough saved for retirement. What do you make?

Our bring home is around $75,000. Okay. How long you have the business? Too long. Okay. How long you had the business? Too long. Okay. What's that mean? That means 29 years. I mean, too long.

I mean, like you don't want it anymore? What do you mean? Well, just kind of burned out on it. What are you going to do with it? I mean, at this point, my only choice is already either sell the real estate and go into other ventures or just continue doing what I've been doing.

How old are you? 51. What's your business? It's retail. What burns you out what burns you out uh just 29 years of doing it and not being as far as i thought i should be at this point she works part-time no she's full-time but a lot of the money goes towards health insurance. Okay. Well, there's several things. I'm going to answer several questions that were not asked.

I'm not going to be 51 and be going for the next 20 years until I'm 71. I'm going to work a business that I'm sick of and that I don't make much money at. Why would you do that? What's the real estate worth? Probably around $200,000. Yeah. I think you'd be better off being a landlord and get a job. Or you'd be better off starting another venture of some kind, like you said.

What would you do, Christy? Yeah, I think you have an opportunity to rethink things. And you called in about paying your mortgage, paying off a debt. But there's a bigger question at play. To your point, Dave, I'm going to answer questions you didn't ask. I think that the assumption that you have to keep doing this and be unhappy when you're 51 is not an accurate assumption. I think you have an opportunity to say, what do I want to do with the next 20 years, 30 years? And this is obviously not the path, so what do you want to do?

Well, that's going to help answer the question of what you do today with your business, with your money, with your debt, etc. But don't just make a decision today based on, well, I've got this debt, I've got this cash, I guess I should pay it off and just keep plugging along, going through the motions in your life. You're not happy. You're not making great money at it, what you want to be doing, what you're proud of, what you're excited about. You can hear it in your voice. You're not excited about it.

So what would excite you? What would you do if you could do something different? So I have the money that we've, the $100,000 that we have cash on hand, we've earned by flipping some houses, some real estate that we've bought and held and rented and then sold in an upmarket. And that's what really kind of, you know, motivates me. It's really where kind of my heart is. Cool. And I can do that.

I can do that anywhere. And that's the luxury that we have is we can kind of go anywhere. Our house is paid off. You the luxury that we have is we can kind of go anywhere our house is paid off um you know so we have yeah so the the real estate that's worth 200 000 is that what the 61 is owed on yeah okay all right and the business has absolutely no value you don't think um i really i just don't think it does it's it's retail um floor covering and um there's you know in in a 30 mile radius there's probably 20 to 25 different locations yeah but a competitor wouldn't want another location in your area

they may buy our our customer list but that's about the extent of it i think maybe i'm underselling it well make sure of that before you yeah before you undersell because you're burnout so you're looking at it with those eyes you're looking at it with burnout eyes there's someone else may look at it and see value i would talk to a competitor under under a non-disclosure agreement that says they can't talk about it but i would talk to a competitor that you think is a little that's doing well that is excited in the market and just say hey if i was to uh if you if you were to look at this how would you value it and would you consider it and let's just let don't

you don't name a price and you don't walk around with your lip stuck out you say you know just just poking around here i'm i'm really not that interested in selling but i might if the price was right and i want to know what you kind of number you'd put on it and then maybe he's going to offer you something that makes your jaw drop okay and then sell the real estate and put 140 000 with your 100 000 and do flips i'm having fun though yeah i. I mean, so my biggest concern is the lack of retirement at 51. You're going to be fine. If you're flipping houses and making money, you can invest it. Right.

You got all kinds of time to invest if you just get with it. Right. to invest if you just get with it. But, you know, dude, you know, truthfully, you're just, you're burn up. Your voice tone even doesn't have energy. It changed when you started talking about the houses. Yes, the first time we heard energy in your voice. Yes, your voice

audibly changed when you talked about that. You can hear it. And that's what's also going to fix the retirement thing. It's not slogging it out here on something. Now, if you were making $250,000 a year on this business and it was going to take four years to sell it or something, I'd slow your butt down and tell you to suck it up and man up and get it done.

But this thing, you need to roll out of this in the next six months and you need to put that commercial property on the market. You need to start flipping houses and take some of that flip money and invest it, fully fund your retirement, and you're going to have plenty of retirement and you're going to make some money and you're going to have fun again. That's exactly what I'd do. I'd pay off the cars today. That puts this hour of The Ramsey Show.

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