The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Pass Up My 401(k) Match To Pay Off Debt? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: July 10, 2024

Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, it's the Ramsey Show, where we help people build wealth, do work that they love, and create actual amazing relationships. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, number one best selling author of the book Breaking Free from Broke, co-host of the Smart Money Happy Hour, Ramsey Network's production, is my co-host today. Open phones at 888-825-5225. Oliver is in Raleigh, North Carolina. Hey, Oliver, what's up? Hey, how are you doing today? Better than I deserve.

How can I help? Yes, so I was calling in to see if I can get some guidance. I have been working on the baby steps for a while now, watching the video channel as much as we can. Uh, we recently have paid about $35,000 in debt. Um, now we're left with about 40. So my question is, is should I take money out of my retirement 401k to pay for, to try

to limit some of the debt that I have. We're trying to save for a house, but we just recently found out that we are going to have to do IVF in order to start our family. So we're trying to knock out the debt as quickly as possible so we can start saving for that as well. So I was trying to see is it okay for me to use my retirement to knock out as much debt as I can.

Well, you've got a lot of goals that are good goals. Having babies is a great goal. The only thing better than having babies is having grandbabies. If I'd have known how great grandbabies are going to be, I'd have been nicer to their parents. So, yeah, having babies is a good thing, right? So, and getting a house is a good thing. These are good goals.

And so you're going at it, you know, the right way. And, of course, when we start talking about IVF, we're talking about something very emotional, right? Yes. I mean, like logic and everything goes out the window when you start talking about babies and trying to get us to get credit cards and we're not trying to use credit cards we're not we're not going to use credit cards for ivf because here's the problem having done what i do i i want you to go do the treatment. I want

you to have babies. I want to do anything I can to help you, okay? But I don't want you to be paying payments and it didn't take. You know what's more painful than not having your IVF work? Paying payments on an IVf that didn't work with that painful reminder every single month stinking month that's horrible don't set yourself up for that that's an emotional train wreck you're asking for please don't do that and i don't care what they say about how you are supposed to handle your money. They're just doctors, which means they're financial idiots usually. Okay? So, no. What is this particular version of IVF going to cost?

They're estimating $25,000. Okay. Again, endorsing the idea that you're doing this, yes, you need to go do this. Yes, we're going to help you do this. I want you, having sat here in this chair answering these questions for 30 years, this is not the first time I've had this question, okay? I want you to go shopping because that's a high number.

I think you can do this less expensively. I think there are other people that do IVF other than the one you've talked to, and you need to learn about them. Okay? So promise me you're going to get a second and a third and a fourth opinion. Anything else you were buying for $25,000, you would shop it, right? Yes, sir. Okay.

But logic goes out the window because there's so much emotion and we pay whatever we got to pay because babies are important. No, no, no. We're going to actually use wisdom about an emotional process. And part of that wisdom is not touching your 401k. Yeah. And there's two reasons why. Number one, you're going to pay an exorbitant penalty for doing so. Your income tax rate plus a 10% early withdrawal penalty, which is like borrowing at 30 something percent interest, which you would never do. And on top of that, you've unplugged all of this growth and compound interest that would have worked for you over the next several decades. So robbing your 401k is not a place you want to go to pay off debt or to fund the IVF. What's your household income?

Roughly around 130. Good. And you paid off 30k so far. What's your household income? Roughly around $130,000. Good. And you paid off $30,000 so far. What's the $40,000 remaining? So we have $12,000 in a car, which we tried to sell off, but it was only worth a little less than $5,000. We have $11,000 in student loans, $7,000 in credit cards, $35,000 in a medical credit card, and $7,500 in a personal. Okay. All right. So, I'm with George. No, we're not going to cash out the 401k. How old are you guys?

I'm about to be 30, and she is 27. Okay. All right. It sounds to me like you could be debt-free in around another year. When we broke it down, we have it scheduled for next September. Okay. So a year and a couple of months. Yes, sir. Okay. So a year and a couple of months. Yes, sir. Okay. And let's pretend that we found

IVF that was 15. Then by the, if you're debt free in September, you'd have the 15 within three or four months. So that following, theoretically, yeah, that following December or January, we can talk about a procedure. Okay. And you'd be 31. That's probably your best plan. If logic's out the window because babies matter and you're not going to do that, then push pause and just step back from the baby steps and scratch together the money and do your IVF now.

And then after that, start your baby steps back. That's declaring it an emergency. That's what that is. If you do it that way. And that would be like you cover your four walls, your insurance, and every other penny you're going to spend saving up for this treatment. And then as soon as you get the ivf behind you then you uh then you start back and you finish off the 40k that's not my preference that's that's plan b but none of these include cashing out

a 401k and none of these include borrowing money for ivf you, sir. Yeah, you can do this, and you should do it, and the house is just in the distance. You're just not getting a house for a while, because we're going to put this in front of the house for sure. Agreed? Definitely. Yeah. Yes, sir. No, IVF was, when we found out we had to do that, that's what, we knew we were going to have to do that before the house, but it was, should I cash out just to get that closer? But if you're saying that, let's not do that, let's just attack it little by little, then we'll go ahead and do that. Yeah, I mean, you'll be done by September, which means you'll probably be done by July or August. You'll probably make it earlier than your math is telling you most people do because you've got a real reason.

I would say you have a huge why you have a huge why and so roughly this time next year you can see the light at the end of the tunnel and we're going to be starting to chunk money aside for ivf in one year give or take and so you know that that's right that's what i would do if i were in your shoes uh and please go shopping please please learn more about um the different pricing models and the different ones a guarantee one's in a single attempt there's all kinds of different ways they go at this and it goes from 7,500 and up when you look at it that way and you got to look through and that that's what the experience i've had with

the customers we've dealt with and i've dealt with this a bunch not a medical guy just been asked this question a bunch this is the ramsey show george camel ramsey personality is my co-host today thank you for joining us america we're glad you're here. Nathan is in Seattle. Hi, Nathan. Welcome to The Ramsey Show. Hi, Dave. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. What's up? So my wife and I just got married about a month ago. We're just starting out, and together we have about $165,000 worth of debt. Ouch. So we're, yeah, really, we're getting ready to tackle that. But I'm about to be eligible for benefits at my job. And we're trying to figure out if I should

go ahead and do the 401k match, given that it's extremely generous. If I contribute 6%, then the company contributes 10% on top of that. So that's a massive multiplier right there. Okay. And what kind of debt is the $165,000? It's mostly student debt. We got about $10,000 of a car loan and pretty much all the rest of it is student loans. What's your household income? Together, we bring in about $95,000 before taxes, though we're looking to do side hustles, work overtime, hoping to get that more up into the $120,000, $130,000 range, but baseline $95,000. Why so much in student loans with a sub $100,000 income? What were the degrees in? My wife got her degree as a licensed marriage and family therapist.

So that's $135,000 of the loans. It's a very expensive program, but doesn't pay a whole lot, especially right after graduating. She's still working towards the hour requirement for her license. Okay, and what are you doing? I'm a handyman. I didn't graduate. I've got about $17,000 in loans myself, but I now work as a handyman. Okay.

Where's the generous match? That's at my job. It's a company that takes care of developmentally disabled adults, so I basically do all of the maintenance for the 14 properties that they have. And so, yeah. And what do you make a year? So, you're not an independent, you're not a small business owner. You work for someone as a handyman. Yes, that's correct. I see. And you make what? I make $25,000 an hour. Okay. It's about $50,000 a year. Right about, though. I have opportunities for essentially unlimited overtime. Okay, so about $50,000 a year. Right about, though I have opportunities for essentially

unlimited overtime. When will she be licensed? So she'll be licensed in about two to three years. It's an hour requirement. Washington recently got rid of the time requirement, so it's just basically as fast as she can get her 3,000 hours. And in the meantime, she's making almost nothing. Yeah, in the meantime, she's making about $45,000. Yeah, okay. All right. Okay.

Well, the answer to your question is no, you do not enter into the 401k, even though the generous, even though it is ridiculously wonderful and generous, because it's just a temporary thing. How quickly are we going to be out of this debt? And of course, that has everything to do with how much income you guys generate. And so the more you can do on your side hustles and other things, and the faster she gets through her 3,000 hours, the faster you guys are going to be through this debt. And then you'll start your 401k.

You've got plenty of time to build wealth. And if you don't focus on this debt exclusively and you try to do three things at once, you're not going to get there. So I hate it because I'm a math nerd, and I know what that match will do for you. But it's a temporary thing. It's just for a little while, like a year, I'm a math nerd, and I know what that match will do for you, but it's a temporary thing. It's just for a little while, like a year, I mean like two years, maybe three, but hopefully two and some change, and you guys are clear, and then by then her income shoots up, and you'll be able to take advantage of this,

and you'll be debt-free and have an emergency fund, and you'll be setting the course towards wealth building. But every dollar you throw in that 401K in the meantime slows down your get out of debt and it slows down your wealth building more than the match. I did the math on it, and it would currently take us about three years, maybe a little less than three years to get out of debt. And doing the 401k match would slow us down by about six months. Yep, that's exactly right.

But it'll slow you down more than that because the power of focus psychologically, when you're focused exclusively on one thing, that's where we find the probability of you actually making it through the plan. That extra $250 that you're going to get back in your paycheck by not doing the 401k is going to psychologically get you so pumped because you're adding that much more to your debt yeah and the only other thing i'll add to the discussion nathan is the great news is you know how to be a handyman dude that is your side hustle you can make bank you know you can make 90 an hour as a handyman in your neighborhood just running your own show man do you know why because i paid that to a handyman you did yes reluctantly but that's what i paid because you don't even know

how a screwdriver works exactly i was willing to pay for the privilege you're that guy but you can make 50 to 90 in any neighborhood in america doing this kind of stuff yeah i'm telling you man i'm we're talking to handy handyman that run their own business you know print up some digital business cards and hand them out by their to the around to their neighbors and wealthy neighborhoods and boom uh you go in you fix every little stinking dishwasher leak or replace every light bulb that's out or whatever else they need done and you you do it and you're you're you know you wear blue booties on your shoes and you go in with a smile and you charge them a lot of money.

And we're talking to guys in that world right now, Nathan, that are making $200K. So would you say that it's worthwhile then to not wait until I'm out of debt to organize an LLC? You don't need an LLC. You need to go get your tools and go to work. You don't have to have an LLC. You just go get it. You can just declare a sole proprietorship. That's all you got to do.

You don't need an LLC until you're making a million dollars or something. There's no point. The LLC doesn't do anything. You'll pay self-employment tax. That's it. If I were you, my side hustle right now would be to build a great handyman business so big that it forces you to quit your tiny little job, and then this whole thing has nothing to do with nothing.

This whole discussion about a 401K goes away because you're going to be making so stinking much money running your own deal. The generous 10%, truthfully, is $5,000 a year right now with your income. That's the max. You can create that with a side hustle very quickly and invest that yourself. So I don't want you to get hung up on that. I think your side hustle is going to out-earn your, if you'll go do what I'm talking about, start your own business right now, today, start handing out, let people know in wealthy neighborhoods that you'll do whatever that you need them, they need you to do.

And you're there to serve them and you're going to charge them and you're going to be on time and you're going to do what you said you were going to do and you're there to serve them, and you're going to charge them, and you're going to be on time, and you're going to do what you said you were going to do, and you're not going to double bill them, you're not going to rip them off, but you're going to charge them a lot. And they don't care. George paid $90. Good God, George. I know.

But you know what? It was because the guys actually showed up and did the work, and I trusted them. And the other guys never showed up. It's not a hard business just show up if you know how if you know how to turn a wrench and you know which end of the screwdriver to use it's not a hard business it you got to show up on time that's it and and people man because in the yeah they've already they've already cross-wired their dishwasher watching a youtube video and blew the house up. So they're glad to see you show up.

And you talk to these small business owners, Dave. It's amazing. They're making money, man. I'm telling you. Because they're competent and they have integrity. That's all it takes to be successful. Show up and do the work with a smile and take a bath. And you really can't mess this up, man.

And I'm telling you, you're going to make so much that this whole discussion about your 401k with this $45,000 job is going to be, because you're going to quit because you're going to be running this business full-time for it's over. That's where this is going to end up going. I love this story. I can't wait to see the end of it. Call us back and tell us how it turns out. Oh, and by the way, then you're out of debt in two years. That's what I'm saying. We need a more aggressive debt payoff plan because what I like about pausing the 401k match is it gets you a little bit angry. You're like, oh my gosh, I like about pausing the 401k match is it gets you a little bit angry. Like, oh my gosh, I'm missing out on the match. Good.

Let that fuel you to get rid of your debt faster to get back to the match faster. That's the power, really, the psychological power of pausing. More than the math of it. You want to hear the irony of this whole thing? What's that? Three years from now, he's making $250,000 as a handyman. And with $165,000 worth of student debt to become a marriage and family counselor, she's making $80,000.

That's an interesting story about the value of education. The value of a trade in today's society. Whoa. Mike Rowe would like that story. He would. I hope he's listening right now. He would be giving us his little micro snicker. That little snicker of his.

That deep voice of his. This is The Ramsey Show. George Campbell, Ramsey personality, number one bestselling author of the book Breaking Free from Broke. He's my co-host today thanks for hanging out with us america no one wins at anything accidentally oops i was married 40 years you stay married 40 years by working at it. No one wins the Super Bowl by getting off the bus and has no idea why they're there. They spent 25 years throwing a football and becoming the best in the world at it, and you get off the bus at the Super Bowl.

You don't get off the bus and go, I don't know what happened. Where are we? I don't know what I'm doing. You don't accidentally win. Success is a series of intentional acts. Wealth building is no exception to that idea. If you're going to build wealth, you're going to do it on purpose. And if you're going to do it on purpose, the way you do it is monthly.

You do a written plan telling your money what to do, giving every dollar a name. It's called a budget. And every dollar gets a mission. Every dollar gets an assignment. Every dollar gets a name of your income before the month begins, and you agree on it with your spouse, and you pinky swear and spit shake to stick to the stinking plan. And then you execute your plan that causes you to win.

You don't wake up at the end of the month and go, I don't know where our money went. Look, we got a tax refund. How'd that happen? I don't know. You can't do it. You got to do it on purpose, and that's why we named the world's best budgeting app EveryDollar.

It's the most robust flex app out there. This thing is kicking butt. Tens of millions of people are opening up their phone every day every week with their spouse with every dollar on it and keeping up with their budget and telling them what to do using this particular software every dollar you can download every dollar for free in the app store or on google play right now and you can even go to everydollar.com if you want to. It's free to check it out.

Go get started. Libby's in Orlando. Hi, Libby. How are you? Doing well. Better than I deserve. Good. How can we help?

So I have been just going back and forth with my husband and ping-ponging in my head about my current situation. So I gave birth to my first child. Yay! What'd you have? Yay! A little boy. Little boy.

Awesomeness. Very cool. Yeah, we have no debt. We use the envelope system for eating out and for groceries. Those are the only two, though. And we're just really, we're minimalists. We've been living just on my income and saving for retirement, everything that my husband makes because he's commissioned. So we just never know what he's going to bring in. Some years it's great,

some years not so much. And my job is pretty demanding. I work in the ministry, so we're always understaffed. And, um, I came home a couple of weeks ago to just a screaming child and a really frustrated husband. And he's like, you have to quit your job. You have to quit it. And that was really hard for me to hear because I felt like I was letting my family down, but I also feel like, and it's my calling. Um, So I'm just really stuck right now. I feel like if we quit, or if I quit, it'll be really hard for us to figure out a budget because his income is so sporadic. We do have savings, but it's only six months.

And I just feel, I don't know. I just feel really torn. I make $55 a year. And what does he make a year? It depends. Oh, you told me that six times. What does he make a year? Last year it was $70.

Okay. And what was it the year before? The year before that it was around $100. Okay. What will it be this year? So far it's probably looking like 50. 50? So it went from a hundred to seventy to fifty? Yeah. What's he sell? Insurance. Why is it going down? His partner and him, they just haven't, they're one of their leads, the major source of their leads. Um, it dried up.

They decided to structure their company else, um, in a different direction. In half. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's been progressive. That's what it's looking like. So, so I'm really nervous, but I also know we have savings and we're very frugal people. Um, I don't want to quit uh but i do want to honor my husband so what did you say your calling was you said i this is my calling

her husband called her to come home that's her calling well yeah well yes i know that my purpose is also being a wife and a mom um as much as i wait a minute let's just stop a second. You just said you don't want to quit. I don't. Why? It's a youth ministry. I just love it so much. Our kids just are broken in the public school. It's dark. Here's the practical options. Either you put the baby in daycare and you keep working. Is your husband keeping the child during the day?

Yes, because the business has been so slow. Well, of course the business is slow. He's keeping a baby. If you don't work, your business gets slow. Yeah, well, he's not in the sales side of it. I mean, he is. I don't know. How is he not in the sales side and it i mean he is uh he's i don't know it's how is he not in the sales side and he's on commission um it's because of how his partner and him they split it how they split the

uh commissions so his partner goes out and i feel like it might be time to end this partnership i i okay here the the well i don't have control over that okay let's yeah you do he told you to quit maybe you could tell him to quit there's an idea uh anyway um i believe in being a submissive wife though submissive wife doesn't mean you submit to misbehavior or stupidity okay and doesn't mean you go it doesn't mean you go along with things that aren't wise that's not submissive submissive doesn't mean doormat you need to do and i'm not a doormat okay well then let's let's let's talk about let's talk about a proper biblical understanding of that okay and it doesn't mean you go along with things you shouldn't go along with that's not what submissive means that is not honoring if your husband was doing cocaine you're not submissive

to that no that and but that's different it's not different it's still misbehavior it's just an extreme misbehavior okay and him not running his career well causing him to keep a baby and get stressed out to demand that you quit your job that you love. There's a lot of stuff wrong with that whole thing. So his career is what needs work, not yours. He needs to rethink how he's going to go out his career. And it's not because his income is erratic. It's because it's failing. It's's gone down 30 a year for three years in a row and he's sitting at home not working well he he works from home so he's able to like you don't work from home if you're keeping a baby babies are a full-time job they're very demanding little critters have you noticed

yes there's no multitasking while watching a baby yeah so that that's that's that's mythology i don't work from home and keep an infant so what's wrong with putting the baby in daycare if you want to continue working and he needs to rethink his career that's what i would do if i were in your shoes if you called me up and said i hate my job i desperately want to be a mom and i'm gonna a full-time mom and i'm gonna quit my job because i hate it i would say quit your job and be a mom and let's figure out his career so so that you guys can afford to eat out even though you're frugal and you're minimalist okay but you still got to have money coming in and so he needs to work on his career i would tell you to do that but i'm also not going to you know if you want to work there's nothing it doesn't make you a bad wife or mother to work yeah there's no wrong answers here unless it's wrong for you both of my daughters work

and they have three kids each and they're godly women and they're great moms i just i guess i just don't buy the whole you can have it all thing so i i feel like i have to choose so i disagree it's not have it all. It's one version of motherhood versus another version of motherhood. And you're going to get judged on both sides. Neither one are evil, and both contain guilt. You can't get away from mom guilt. It chases you everywhere, apparently.

So I've been told. I suffer from none of that. This is The Ramsey Show. Our scripture of the day, James 1, 12. Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, because having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. Thomas Edison said, when you've exhausted all possibilities, remember this, you haven't. I do like that.

That's good. Lisa's in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Hi, Lisa. How are you? Hi, Dave. I'm well. Thank you for taking my phone call. Sure.

What's up? So I was calling to get your advice about a rental property that we have that's paid off. Since the tenants moved out, we've put about $ thirty thousand dollars on credit cards to get it renovated to get it ready to either sell or to rent out again and i just wanted to give you my financials to get your advice as to what you would do if you were in my shoes sounds like you can't afford to have a rental property. I know. The $30,000 in credit cards is a big no-no. I already know. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's like you're too broke to have a rental property because you can't even renovate your own property.

Right, right. Okay. So what's the property worth? What's it worth? So the comparative market analysis said it's worth $152,000 once it's all said and done and renovated. But that's our rental property. We also have a house that we live in now that we owe $169,000 on. Total debt, including the $30,000 in credit cards, is $280,000 total debt.

That's a HELOC loan for 83,000, our current primary residence, which is 169. And then the 30,000 buying the plan. What was the HELOC loan for? So the HELOC loan, again, stupid financial decisions that I made, but the HELOC loan was to pay off the rental property. It was like $43,000 that was left, and we paid off one of our car loans. So you didn't pay it off. You moved the rental property debt onto your personal residence. Stupid, stupid. You didn't pay it off. You just moved it. You're right. You're right. Okay. I'm not yelling at you. I'm just trying to make sure you understand. So yeah, sell it and pay off this crap.

Pay off the HELOC and pay off the credit cards. Okay. Do the baby steps. Start with the credit card. Then go to the HELOC. And then would you put all the rest of it into the rest of the mortgage, 169, or would you invest it? Not put on the mortgage. And make sure you have an emergency fund.

Have an emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. If you're working the baby steps, you're going to do that. You're going to be 100% debt-free except the house. That leaves $169 on the house only. No HELOCs, no nothing else. But you didn't even have enough to pay off all your debt. What was the other debt? You had the HELOC and what else? Credit cards and one other thing.

So you're ready to yell? I'm not yelling. No, no, no. That was it. No, I know you're not. So it was $169 for the mortgage, $83 for the HELOC, and then the $30,000 for the credit card. I got that.

That's it? So, what did you ask me then? Is that it? Yeah, that's it. That's our total debt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, if you pay off the credit cards and the HELOC with the sale of the rental, you will have enough left over to build your emergency fund out, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely. Okay, good. That's great. Here's another way of build your emergency fund out, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. Okay, good. That's great. Here's another way of thinking about this, okay, Lisa? There's a thing called a sunk cost analysis, which is reverse engineer the thing, okay? Let's pretend we had $150,000 sitting in the middle of our kitchen table.

Okay. Stacks of Benjamins, okay? Would we go buy a rental property with it and pay cash worth 150 or will we pay off all this stupid debt definitely pay off the stupid debt see that that's reverse engineering it okay so that tells us to sell the rental property and pay off the stupid debt i knew i thought i figured you were going to say that but i'm fairly predictable but but it's a good thing though it's always great advice and i appreciate you taking the time for my call honey we love you we appreciate you calling in thank you for being a listener okay hey no problem have a blessed one you too kiddo

it's that simple and it's that hard you know but the the lure of the stupidity on tic-tac telling you that you gotta have a rental property and then they say never sell it it's passive income i got your passive income thirty thousand dollars worth of renovation there's your passive and it was paid off that teaches you what there's nothing passive about owning real estate it's very active um there's things called tenants that you better be active with. An active headache all the time. Yeah. So she so desperately wanted to keep this rental property,

she just kept backing into it and backing into it. If I put enough money in, it'll make sense. There we go. Eric's in Fort Lauderdale. What's up, Eric? Hey, how are you guys doing today? Better than we deserve. How can we help uh yeah i'm just

wondering like what the next step is after being debt free because i feel like i'm just throwing money into savings with really no goals well let's get some goals on the table here how much do you have in savings uh 50 000 how old are you? 34. Cool. How much have you gotten in savings? $50,000. Oh, you said that. God, I'm sorry.

All right, and you're saying you don't have plans. Are you single? Yeah, I'm single. I'm not married, no kids. I feel like I should want that stuff because everybody has that, and I feel like that's what somebody my age would want but or should want but I'm really not interested in it right now so I don't really know what my next step is besides just throwing money into my savings there's three things you can do with money and you ought to do all three always regardless you ought to save and invest it for future goals and you do need some

goals whatever they are I don't care if it's family you need to go okay let's say i want to be a millionaire by the time i'm 40 i don't care set let's set it up okay the second thing is you need to enjoy money have some fun with it plan a vacation yeah and spend some of it on good old eric he's a good dude he works hard okay the third thing is you need to be generous so always be giving always be investing and always be enjoying at some ratio if you're ever doing only one or only two of those you are out of balance and so you need to you know what i would do is lay out a game plan and make my money behave it's very satisfying to make money behave it tastes has a bad aftertaste on the back of your tongue when it just leaves and you don't know where it went that's called regret

okay and so you know you need if you lay out and say okay i'm going to systematically invest and if i do that for this period of time i'll have a million dollars in a good mutual fund okay and i'm going to enjoy this percentage of my income. So I do that. I get a check in from the publisher on total money makeover. I get a nice check every so often from them on that. I think still sells like a crazy man. And so I take that check and it's already divided up.

Half of it almost goes to taxes, right? And the other half is divided between fun additional generosity and additional investing so when the check comes in in a sense it's already spent pre-decided pre-decided okay and just do that and that'll give you that'll get rid of this gnawing feeling but i i if you don't want to have get married and have kids that's fine there's no i mean what what do what gives you joy i will warn you that about the time you commit to that you will she will run over you i mean you won't be able to stop her yeah you you won't be able to yeah it's just going to happen about the time you think you got that yeah okay anyway but anyway that might not happen but you you don't have to

there's no rule that says to be happy you have to do that. Just because everybody else does something doesn't mean you have to do it. So that's cool. But yeah, you're right, George. Get some goals. And what do we, you know, I want to own 10 pieces of real estate. I want to own. You want to start a business.

Who knows what it is? Yeah, and what would I do if I had a million dollars? I don't know. Let's get a million dollars and find out. But I love just splitting it up. It just helps to be logical and go, I'm going to give some, save and invest some, and enjoy some. And then you create your every dollar budget, and you actually have a line item for giving. And you actually mark things down under that category.

And you actually have a spending fund money category for Eric. And then you have no guilt when you take that fund money and buy a cool car. Because you pre-decided. It's notulsive i'm i got my generosity over here i got my investing over here this is money for okay i'm gonna buy a cool car and you don't have to go i don't think i'm should i do something wrong buying that car you didn't do anything wrong you did it on purpose that's cool that's one of the most underrated guilty spending this much on a vacation why you worked your butt off you should only feel guilty if you have no generosity and no investing You did it on purpose. That's cool. That's one of the most underrated parts. I feel so guilty spending this much on a vacation. Why? You worked your butt off.

You should only feel guilty if you have no generosity and no investing and you're broke and you went on vacation. And it was all impulsive. Yeah, that's not what, but if you've planned it out and you got this money sitting there for that purpose, ding, ding, ding. That's the most underrated part of doing an every dollar budget is there's no guilt. You pre-decided nothing's impulsive because everything was intentional. It's kind of boring once you get it rocking. I know. That's why you got to add a little bit of fun in there. A little bit of peace. Like you have to add an impulsive fun line item in the budget. I'm going to be impulsive with my $20 this month.

Get crazy, Dave. Crazy. That puts this hour of the Ramsey Show in the books. We'll be back with you before you know it. In the meantime, remember, there's ultimately only one way to financial peace And that's to walk daily with the Prince of Peace, Christ Jesus We'll see you next time.