The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Pay Off My Fiancé's Debt When We Get Married? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: January 12, 2021

Debt, Savings, Career, Home Buying, Relationships, Retirement Sign Up for a FREE trial of Ramsey+ TODAY: https://bit.ly/31ricKt  Tools to get you started:  Debt Calculator: https://bit.ly/2QIoSPV Insurance Coverage Checkup: https://bit.ly/2BrqEuo Complete Guide to Budgeting: https://bit.ly/2QEyonc Check out more Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/2JgzaQR

Music Music Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Dollar Car Rental Studio, this is the Dave Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life, your money, your mental health, your relationships. My name is Anthony O'Neill, host of the popular YouTube show, The Table with Anthony O'Neill. And co-hosting today is the one and only Dr. John Deloney, host of the popular The Dr. John Deloney YouTube and podcast show. We're here to take your calls. And, y'all, we love talking about anything.

And so give us a call, 888-825-5225. Again, that's 888, eight, two, five, five, two, two, five. And I want to start off this segment by motivation and guidance you need to hit reset to hit the reset button and say goodbye to stress, money, stress, life stress. Maybe not for good when a life stress, but at least for good for the money stress. Tonight is a free event, a free reset live stream event to kickstart your money goals. And so what I want you to do is text the word RESET to 33789. Again, that is RESET to 33789.

Or you can go to DaveRamsey.com forward slash RESET. So here's your options for tonight. Go home, be annoying, listen to your kids be annoying or go i don't know sit around and sing kumbaya together you watch a get into bed as soon as possible you watch some netflix show they all go off into the rooms on their own devices you and your wife are watching your own shows she's thumbing through something on whatever you're thumbing through whatever device on your whatever,

you're watching a screen and you're watching your screens in front of another screen, or you can put your money where your mouth is, get everybody together, say tonight is the night, we're all getting on the same page as a family, as a dating couple, I'm getting on the same page by myself,

I'm just sitting on my couch, I've been stuck in this place for nine months, I got a dog next to me now. I've got this dog from the pound. I don't even know where this dog came from, Anthony. I don't even know this dog. We're going to sit down. I've got my yellow pet out.

We're just going to say no more. We're going to say no more and get four of the best voices in the United States of America. You can turn off the dumpster fire that's the news right now. You can turn off the dumpster fire that is the plans we thought we had for 2021, and then it shot out of the can and it did and we can just say all right man we got four of the of the best and brightest in the united states of america going to walk us through hope walk us through reset walk us through a plan reset to 33789 i don't know what else you could possibly be doing with your time tonight do it do it do it do it i used to love me some peer pressure in college. Do it.

Why would you not do it? I love it, man. I love your energy around this whole event, man. Just do it. What else are you going to be doing? You're amazing. I know what else I could be doing right now, and that is talking to Lynn in Tosla, Oklahoma. Good afternoon, Lynn. How can Dr. D and I help?

Hi, guys. I'm engaged, and I'm planning for my married financial life. Okay. Good for you. I have money saved, and my fiancé has debt. So when we get married, I'd like to pay off his debt. But then my idea was to live like we're on baby step two until we put that money back into my savings but I don't know if that's going overboard and since I have money I shouldn't live like I'm

in debt but I think it'd be good practice for him because he's just getting into Dave Ramsey. We're taking FPU this spring. When are you getting married? October 2021. Okay. So you can continue to, when you're talking about your financial situation right now until October, it's going to be yours and his. Right. When you were talking about the shared debt repayment program, the plan y'all are going to get on as a couple, it's y'all's. So the moment you walk down that aisle, that is not his debt. That is y'all's debt. The moment he walks down that aisle, that is not your savings. That is y'all's savings.

And then you immediately kick right back into whatever baby step you all are on because y'all will have debt, y'all will have savings, y'all will aggressively have two incomes hopefully going after this thing, and then y'all are going to work on this plan together. Does that make sense? It does. It does. And listen to you. You almost didn't take a breath while I was talking.

When you get married, it's y'alls. Okay. There is no ifs, ands, or buts. There's nothing that's going to divide your relationship up or spin your brand new marriage off into the ditch faster than yours and mine, his and hers. But I did so much work before we got, hey, we're getting married now. Okay?

Same plan, same team, same united goals, same legacy that y'all are both building. Lynn, how much debt does he have? When we get married, it should probably be $25,000. Okay. How much does he make a year? About $55,000. Okay. How much does he make a year? About $55,000. Okay.

What does he do for a living? He works in a factory. Okay. Cool beans. All right, factory. What kind of $25,000 is that? Is that student loans? It's a personal loan and a credit card.

Okay, a personal loan and a credit card. Well, how much does he have on the credit cards? It's about half and half. Yeah. Okay, how much do they have on the credit cards? It's about half and half, yeah. How much do you have in savings? Your precious, precious savings. Yes, I can tell how precious it is to you. How much do you got in it? Well, in non-retirement savings, I have about $300,000.

Okay, yeah. So let me ask you this question. Wait, what? She asked $300,000. Okay. Yeah. So let me ask you this question. Wait, what? She asked $300,000. We could tell that Lynn has been the wise steward in saving. How old are you, Lynn? I'm 36. Yeah. How old is your husband, your future husband?

45. Okay. All right. So here's the thing. I want to have a conversation with your husband. Okay. If your husband was there, I would have a conversation like this. Hey, we're going to do this. And this is what we are going to do.

I went down to John said we are going to pay off your debt. But I would want to know what is his mindset? You know, like where how does he think about money? What does he think about money? How is he perceiving things? Because what I want to make sure is that when you two get married, you do not end up back in baby step two because of decisions you both made. I don't think that you will make them because of your lifestyle today. But I'm not I'm not sure to what your husband, your future husband will say. OK, so just make sure that before you all get married that you two get on the same page when it comes to finances now to answer your part two question um we say we say

to have three to six months of emergencies sitting aside 250 000 is more than six months yeah okay okay cool so what's in your actual checking account? Savings account. So I have more cash than normal because I've been paying for a wedding and then hopefully we'll buy a house. So I do have more cash than normal. I have about

45 in actual cash. Yeah. So here's the thing. I would definitely just say, make sure you have the minimum of six months. If you have more than six months in there, no, don't stay on baby step two and don't stay on baby step three. Enjoy your life.

Move on to baby steps four through seven and enjoy your first year of marriage. The day after that wedding, you write a check and pay his debt off. Yeah. Well, pay y'all's debt off. Ah, well played. This is the Dave Ramsey Show.

People all over the country are discovering a faith-based and budget-friendly way of meeting health care costs through Christian Health Care Ministries. Christian Health Care Ministries, or CHM, is a non-profit organization that helps members carry one another's burdens with health care expenses, and they have successfully shared each other's medical bills for nearly 40 years. See if CHM is right for you by visiting chministries.org.

CHM is a proud sponsor of Dave Ramsey Live Events. 888-825-5225. Again, the number here is 888-825-5225. We have about 45 minutes left in this hour that we would love to talk with you, Dr. John Deloney and myself, Anthony O'Neill, Ramsey Personalities. And here we're talking about relationships, money, you name it. And we're going to talk with Alex. Alex out in

Dallas, Texas. Good afternoon, Alex. How can Dr. D and I help? Hey guys, thank you so much for taking my call. I know. Thank you so much for giving us a call. How can we serve, man? So I'm on baby step two. I've got about $5,000 left before I finish up and can move on to do my six-month emergency fund. I just finished off paying one loan, and this is my last one. It's a student loan. Okay.

I'm fortunate enough to work for a company that helps me with my debt repayment. And at present, they are paying more than the minimum I have on my student loan. And so my question was, would it be okay to move on to Baby Step 3 while I have my company working on Baby Step 2 so I can work on that. Okay, that's a great question, man. So it's going to be a tricky question. So my answer is going to be like a yes and a no, and you'll see

why. How much longer do you have to pay this off? So if I were to attack it without assistance, it would take about three and a half months say it again three and a half years three and a half months if I were to do it without without any assistance perfect all right so here's what I'm gonna do so let's just say yes to make it simple for you yes start move start parking money into babysat number three as far as an emergency fund then what you do is to say,

for an example, something happens in the next two months and let's say you have to leave the company and you lose out on that. Then immediately you will go into that savings account and pay off for the rest of your debt and then pick back up on baby set three. Does that make sense? Definitely. Yeah.

It's very helpful. Yeah. So I would definitely do that. Just go ahead and just start parking money to your baby set three aggressively you know so that way you can get to three months maybe within the next um uh three to five months and then from there boom you know if something does happen great you got the money to take care of it if something doesn't happen great you're already ahead of the game such a great question man. Thanks so much for calling in. For sure. Thank you so much, guys. Thank you. Josh is with us in Ontario. Good

afternoon, Josh. How can Dr. D and I help? Hi, Anthony. Hi, John. How are you guys today? Yeah, man, we're doing great, man. Thanks so much. Much better since you've called in. How can we serve? I have a question. I'm self-employed. I started my own business two and a half years ago. I have one part-time employee and it's going well. We're making good money and it's a good job, but to develop the business, I need to start putting systems in place and business process in place. And I've spoken to a business coach. Now, it costs a considerable amount of money to get a business coach. What's a considerable amount of money?

I feel like I could use one to grow the business. How much is it going to cost? $1,500 U.S., I guess it's about $2,000 Canadian. Okay, all right. That's a month? Yes. Okay, all right. Go ahead.

I was wondering if you guys think that would be worth it to get a coach to help develop these business processes. I'm always a fan of getting an expert who can walk alongside me to help me do things that I don't know how to do. And there's a cool new trend now to just be like, ah, dude, bro, just get on YouTube. You don't need none of that. You can just, and some of that stuff is true. I learned how to fix the, you know, the none of that. You can just, and some of that stuff is true. I learned how to fix the side mirror that I knocked off when I backed my wife's car into the post outside our house.

I was able to get on YouTube and just figure that out. Sometimes there's a way to take some of this expertise and coaching and they make it sound like it's a bunch of forms. And having somebody who will walk alongside you during the ups and downs of figuring this out, when you get nervous, who's going to answer a text or a phone call late at night or early in the morning or turn your stuff around in 24 hours to not only give you the information but to help with the implementation and the process, I think that is often can be well, well, well worth its money. What I want to know from a coach is, do you know what you're talking about? If somebody is just a consultant to be a consultant, they're not very useful for me. I want someone who's been there, who knows what they're talking about, who meets with people regularly, understands both personally and experientially what people are going through and can actually provide me true expertise. What makes Dave, Dave is that he went through it. And then he sat at a card table in his

living room for years and continues to be the ceo of a multi multi-million dollar corporation that still talks to the frontline customer every single day for three hours a day that makes him an experiential expert a knowledge expert you know and we're sitting here reading content during the breaks to make sure we know what we're talking about and continue to meet with people regularly. So, man, you get the right coach behind you. They're well worth their money. It'd be a great investment. I've made those investments myself. I'm looking at a particular kind of coach right now for myself about something totally unrelated to my content just from my life. And so I do it. Anthony, what do you think? I mean, I think anytime you can get a mentor or coach is a great opportunity. If it's a great opportunity, do it.

I think I will also assess my financial situation. I want to make sure that I'm not spending this money, $1,500, you know, U.S. dollars. And it's putting me in a bind and it's making me I'm having to borrow the money or I'm having to do things that I shouldn't be doing to get this money. And the key thing for me when I look for mentors or business coaches or programs, you know, we offer here a program called Entree Leadership that helps a lot of our small businesses elevate to the next level. I look for results. You know, you have a lot of people who can say a lot of good things. But what are the results? Have they produced other people to be successful? Have they helped other businesses

get to the next level? So Josh, I think you have to sit down one, ask yourself, okay, is this a wise move for me financially? Will it, will $1,500 or a thousand dollars or whatever the price is, wherever you may land, will it hurt me? If it will not hurt you, okay, cool, great. I have the money. It's in my budget. Cool. Two, okay, ask that person to send you proof of results, to send you proof of other companies they've helped get to the next level.

Once you have those two questions answered, yes, then I will move forward. And then once you get, I think, I can't remember what our program requires. I think it requires something in between five or seven employees. I can't remember the exact stuff. I would definitely look onto Entrez Leadership's website, see if you can get down with us. They're the best in the business, but I do believe there are certain kind of parameters that we require so we can work with you. But look us up. But then at the same time, just make sure you ask the right questions to whoever you look for.

All right, Josh? Perfect. Thank you, guys. Hey, thank you, man. Hey, Josh, one more thing. Appreciate the advice. One more thing. Go ahead.

Don't spend the money on a coach if you're not going to do what they recommend. Yeah. We'll buckle down and do and work with them and strive as hard as we can. A good coach is going to make you really uncomfortable. A good coach is going to push you harder than you can push yourself. A good coach is going to give you information about

you and your company and your business that you don't necessarily want to see that's going to make you have to pivot, do things differently, hire somebody else, etc. Don't go to a personal trainer if you don't want to lift the weights. Don't go to a nutritionist if you want to keep eating pizza for breakfast. Don't get a business coach if you're not going to change your life. Don't get a mentor if you're going to talk more than a mentor.

Oh, my gosh. Bottom line. That's one of the things I'm always telling people listening right now. So we talked about business coaches, but I want to talk about this going into the break. The reason why some of you are not as successful is because when you do get a mentor, you talk more than a mentor actually talk. You have two eyes and two ears for a reason. And one mouth. Listen and watch more than you talk.

I watch Dave's every move. Do I do every single thing Dave does? No. I listen to every single word that Dave says. Do I do 100% of what he says to do? When it comes to money, yes. You know,

but I listen more than I talk because he's the expert. He is where I want to be in life. And so if you get a business coach, if you get a mentor, if you get a mentor if you get a marriage counselor if you get a listen listen oh okay listen that's it listen and try it and if it doesn't work cool but at least you try something

i'm a i'm a little frustrated but i'm going to be quiet because this is The David Hunter Show America Tonight don't forget to text the word America tonight. Don't forget to text the word reset. R E S E T 2 3 3 7 8 9 to sign up and take the first step toward lasting financial peace. Dave Ramsey, Chris Hogan, Rachel Cruz, and Craig Rochelle will be giving America the motivation and guidance. We all need to hit the reset button and say goodbye

to money stress, life stress, you name it. It's tonight at 7 p.m. It is 100% free. Free, free, free. All you have to do is text the word reset, R-E-S-E-T, to 33789 or go to DaveRamsey.com forward slash reset. Jenny is with us in New York. Good afternoon, Jenny. How can Dr. D and I help? Hi, guys. I'm huge fans of yours. It's an honor to be talking to you. Oh, man, we are a huge fan of you.

How can we help you? So I have an 18-month-old baby boy, and I have decided that I would like to make my shovel a little bit bigger. So I have a job offer from a daycare, but it's just not something that I really want to be doing long term. And I'm wondering if I should, like with the daycare, I'd be able to take my son with me. And I'm wondering if I should seek out some sort of employment that I'd be more comfortable with long term. But I would also have to put my son in daycare. Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I get it. It's like, hey, if I go to this job, I actually get the discount because my son can go with me. And I don't have to pay as much. If I go to another job, I'm going to have to pay 100% of the daycare. So you're in a very interesting situation. Let me ask you this question. What do you really want to do? You know, like what are you passionate about?

Because this is a bigger than just money question, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Well, right now I just finished my associate's degree in December. Okay. I'm transferring. Ideally, I would be transferring into a psychology program. Okay. And eventually, I would like to have my master's in that so I can teach either in high school or post-secondary education.

Okay. Hey, don't laugh at that. That's a good dream. teach either in high school or post-secondary education. Okay. So you want to be a teacher. Hey, don't laugh at that. That's a good dream. And don't doubt yourself. You're raising a son. You're going to school. You're kicking butt.

Don't doubt yourself. You're going to get all that knocked out. Yeah. You want to be a school teacher? That's great. Okay. Right now, the process is you got to go through school, get the education, so you can become a school teacher, correct?

Right. All right, cool. Can you do that while working at daycare? I probably could. It would just make, right now I'm in baby step two, so it would make my baby step two take a little bit longer. Okay. Okay. All right.

I'm fine with that as long as you're cash flowing the rest of your school process. Okay. Okay. All right. I'm fine with that. As long as you're cash flowing the rest of your school process. Yes. Absolutely. Yep. How much left on your debt? How much do you owe? $17,000 altogether.

How long would it take you to get that just knocked out completely? It'll take her a while. Let's just work at a daycare. Yeah. Well, right right now i only make about fifteen hundred dollars a month yeah and with the daycare i would probably that one i did the math and i think the most that i can make is probably three hundred dollars a week yeah because it's a floater position so So it's only like five hours.

Right. So, so we got to get your shovel bigger. Like you said, in the very beginning, beginning, um, I want to connect you and honestly,

um, introduce you to Ken Coleman, Ken Coleman. I call him our, uh, make your shovel guy bigger. I mean, that makes,

that didn't make any sense. Ken Coleman is a guy who, who can help you make your shovel bigger. He is the shovel guy. I want you to listen to his show. I want you to read his book. I'm going to send you a free copy of his book, The Proximity Principle. And I want you to read it.

And then also what I want you to do is just go on his website. He has a lot of resources when it comes to how to find a job, how to land your dream job. And your dream job is to be a teacher. And so I want you to do that. So here's the answer to your question. So we make sure to be very practical for you. Yes. Take the job. Okay. Take the job. You're going to get a discount for your baby. That means that you're going to have one less fee on you. Your main priority right now is to pay your bills. It's to pay your bills. Your next

priority is to make sure you cash flow the rest of your college experience. So this way you can get into your teacher job. Now here's one thing I want to just kind of recommend. Figure out a way on how maybe on the side, you can generate a little

bit more money. Because making $1,200 a month is hard. Yeah, I have been doing that. This month has been a little bit rocky, but last month, I actually crochet on the side. Okay. So last month was really good because of Christmas, right? Yeah, so I'm pretty sure

you made a good grand or two extra last year. I mean, last month. So long as you're doing that, Jenny, that's perfectly fine. How old are you? 21. 21. Okay, cool. Wow, you're getting it.

So, hey, and know this. There may be seasons. It's going to feel like either or in some of these moments. There may be seasons where you are going to buckle down with a specific goal in mind. I'm going to take this job to pay this thing off and exhale. That means I'm not going to be able to see my baby as much. And it's going to be for this series, this season.

Or you're going to flip that around and say, I don't, these moments are finite. I don't want to put my kid in daycare. I'm willing to go six more months. I'm willing to go another year on paying my debt off so that I don't have to put my kid in daycare. That's sort of what I was struggling with. Here's the thing. They feel either or, like you're going to do this thing forever or that thing forever. Think more seasonally.

Think more right now. I'm going to get my last two years and get this degree paid off. I'm going to hustle it up. I'm going to get a full-time gig, and I'm going to put baby in daycare for 24 months, and that's going to be that. Or I'm going to, like Anthony said, I'm going to crush it. I'm going to work alongside baby.

We're going to beans and rice, beans and rice for another year, a little bit longer than we were going to, but I'm going to cash flow that degree. I'm going to get in the door, get a much, much higher paying job that's going to pay for my master's degree. Then I'm going to be a school counselor. And now you're off and running. So think seasonally not. This is the way this is always going to be.

That's a trap that young moms fall into. And everyone around you wants you to feel guilty about the decisions that you're making make sure you get some way that you can make those decisions with think seasonally be at peace with your decision and then like anthony said go get it man go get it and here's one last thing to jenny i want you to uh follow me on my youtube channel as soon as you hang up i want you to go to youtube.com and i want you to subscribe to King Coleman Show and subscribe to The Table with Anthony O'Neill. Just type those two in and I want you to subscribe because I'm going to show you how to get the mindset to keep pushing and to get over the obstacles and really how to build and get out of your debt, pay off all your debt and how to really start building wealth at a young age in your bracket. King Coleman is going to show you how to get the shovel bigger. So when you come over to me, we can do a lot of those different things together. So follow those two YouTube channels today.

And I promise you, you will be successful. But stay on the line. Kelly's going to get some information from you. We're going to send you King Coleman's book, The Proximity Principle. OK. And then also go ahead and give her a copy of destroy your student loan debt as well kelly just so she can have that so when she does get to the point of paying off her student loans she already knows how to do it you know one of the things i'm always

telling young people uh john is you really have to step back and really start identifying your why and and i've been i've been repeating this because I keep hearing young people just, you know, they're not as motivated. You know, they're not as excited. They don't really have the drive. And I think they don't have the drive because they don't understand why they're working for what they're working for. And when I hear young people like her, my son will be my would would be my wife.

My children will be my wife. My wife will be my wife because I want so much more for them. You know, when I think about my kids, I don't want them to experience sleeping in the back of the car for six months. I don't want them to experience not being able to travel and go to Disney World when they're 12 years old. I want them to experience some foundation, but also experience life. And you know what else, Anthony? I want your why to also be you. Yes.

Because you've got value. Yes. You are worth not being shackled. You are worth getting to sit back on Christmas. You are worth hugging that kid, sleeping a full night's sleep. Yes. You know what I mean? I like that. You're worth hugging that kid, sleeping a full night's sleep. Yes. You know what I mean? I like that.

You're worth it too, man. Yeah. America, I'm going to try to repeat after us. You are worth it. Say it again. You are worth it. I love it.

This is The Dave Ramsey Show. Thank you. 888-825-5225 we have like 12 more minutes with you beautiful people here in America but before we get back to the phone calls we have a beautiful scripture and quote that we want to leave with you all today

today's scripture is from Proverbs 15, 22 through 24. It says, Without counsel, plans fail, but with many advisors they succeed. To make an apt answer is a joy to a man and a word in season how good it is. The path of life leads upward for the prudent that he may turn away from the shoal beneath. And Phil Jackson says, the strength of a team is each individual member, and the strength of each member is the team.

Wow. I love me some Phil Jackson. He is the best that has ever done it. Nicholas is with us in British Columbia. I love it. Nicholas, good afternoon in British Columbia. I love it. Nicholas, good afternoon. How can Dr. D and I serve?

Hey, how's it going? Thanks for taking my call. Yeah, man. Thank you so much for calling in. How can we help, bro? So my situation is I'm 24 years old and I'm looking to buy my first home or I guess it's really expensive up here. So I'm looking more like an apartment.

Okay. or I guess it's really expensive up here, so I'm looking more like an apartment. And I have a pretty decent amount saved up right now, but my parents have done pretty well as well, and they're trying to insist to help me out with the down payment. So I'm just wondering if that would be something wrong to do. Not at all. I mean, I plan on buying my kid his first house. So, I mean, I would be offended if my child told me, no, I don't want you to help or sow a seed into my life.

Let me ask you a question because I want to be fair in understanding to you. Why do you have some questions about it? What's going through your heart and through your mind? Because I just, like, I'm just thinking for their sake. Like, I think because I'm still pretty young, I'm 24 years old, and I should be able to buy a place within the next year or two anyways. So I'm just thinking that they can keep the, like, more so they can keep their money for retirement and that, like, that sort of thing. You know what I mean? Okay.

So you have a good heart. You know, you love your parents. Yeah. And I love that. Do you have any debt right now nicholas uh no debt no yeah man me personally i'll let dr dr john come in here and and give you some wisdom but um anytime your parents want to be a blessing do it and learn from your parents how you position yourself to be a blessing to your kids in the future and we start passing that down in the family hey my mom and dad helped me i'm going to help you and because i helped you i'm

going to position you in a better place where maybe you could do more for your child maybe you can buy their first house you know that's my goal bro is is my goal is that if i have three kids when they get married i can buy their first house now it will be up to a certain budget amount, but that's my goal because I want to sow a seed into my kids' future and pray that they will do it to their kids and their kids. And now I've created a new chain, a new kind of family history and a new family tradition within my family. But John, do you see anything here I'm missing? I say, Nicholas, I want to give my kids a high five when they get married. So that's what I'm hoping.

Hey, the only thing that I would be weary of here is if you know that there's going to be strings attached, either explicit ones or implicit ones. If you know that mom's going to help with that down payment, and that means she's going to want a key to the house, and she's going to come over every weekend and check to see if it's clean, and she's going to be over there nagging you if somebody or dad's going to be in your business. And really, it's going to be kind of his house where his son's just living in it. Then, yeah, I would pump the brakes on accepting money.

If your parents just want to bless you, man, they just want to take care of you, then I understand I put my pride in a box. I would accept their gift and just consider yourself blessed. And like Anthony said, make sure you are living a life so that you can steward that forward to somebody else someday. Absolutely, man. Such a great question, man. Thank you so much for calling in. Flint is with us. Not Flint.

I'm sorry. Edward is with us in Flint, Michigan. Good afternoon, Edward. How can Dr. Dan I hope? Hey, thanks for taking my call, you guys. Yeah. My question is, I'm 45 years old. We're getting ready to do the 15% in the 401k.

Okay. Obviously, we stopped it to get to this point, but I got, in a 401k, I got 107,000 and I'm starting to rock from scratch. And it scares me because I feel like at my age of 45, I should be dumping money into the 107. So it grows, but starting off at zero kind of scares me. I need some reassurance on what I'm doing. Yeah, man. I totally understand that, Edward. I would definitely sit down and talk to one of our smart investor pros because I'm asking, I'm trying to figure out how can I move that 107 and go ahead and put into a Roth. Now you will have to pay some stuff there on that part, but I will kind of weigh your options. So how can we move that over to the Roth account? Because that's what I did here at Ramsey Solutions. And then that way I'm growing this money tax free.

Okay. So I want you to take advantage of the Roth program. I don't want you to keep putting money into the traditional because you're not growing it tax free. And I want you to take advantage of this, especially at your age right now. So without getting too, too detailed because you are at a season of your life to where we need to make sure we're making all the right decisions, I want to connect you with our SmartVestor Pros.

So have you met with any of our SmartVestor Pros yet? No, I have not. Yeah, because I... And my company, Matt, still goes into a traditional, so I'm going to have to leave that open. Well, you don't have to leave the traditional open. Zero. No, you're going to...

Okay. No, so what you're going to do, you're going to invest into the Roth. All companies are going to invest into traditional. We do that here at Ramsey Solutions. Then at the end of the year, I can say, yes, move my match over to my Roth. And so you won't have to leave that one per se particularly open. You can move that money over. But we need to see if that's even a wise thing for you to do at this age and with that amount of money and what would that cost be. So that's why I really want you to

particularly sit down with a smart investor pro that can look into how are you investing it, what's going on and make the right decision for you and yourself. But I'm telling you right now, you need to take advantage of the Roth and we need to start putting money into that. But let's figure out how do we, what's the best way to get that 107 turned over there. And Edward, just so you know, brother, I just sat down with a smart investor pro to talk about how I'm going to split mine between a Roth and the traditional, how I'm going to go down those same paths. If I'm even eligible for a Roth, what can I do on a back to all those kinds of things?

I just did that exact same thing. And I'm a few years younger than you, but I'm weary of giving like Anthony of a particular, it's going to, it's going to, there's so many different aspects. That's why I sit down with a smart investor. Pro is going to know what your goals are,

what your risk tolerance is, how much money you make, how much money your wife makes, how long you're going to make that money. All that goes into a pot. And it's easy just to say this versus that. Sit down with somebody who's going to walk you through and get exactly what you're looking for. Absolutely. Real quickly, Cole is in North Carolina. Cole, talk to us real quick. You got 30 seconds. How can we help?

Hey, gentlemen. Great to be on with you. My wife and I are in babysit number seven. I'm in the military. Contribute about 22% of my base pay to retirement. Okay. And the money that we have left over, we're trying to purchase a home in cash within the next 10 years. And I'm kind of struggling with whether we should be trying to max out our Roth IRAs or trying to max out that house fund. What's the best way going forward? How old are you, Alex? I'm 29 years old. Yeah, max it out. Max out your saving

for a house fund. I'm fine with that because you're already maxing out your retirement with over here in this area. Okay. So if you can, if you want to go ahead and start just pushing it hard, pushing it hard, I would try and cut that 10 years down to maybe like six, seven. And then from there, if you don't have a hundred percent, maybe you put down 75% and finance a 25% for like 10, seven years and pay it off quick. I don't want you to go 10 years without investing into a Roth IRA, but you're already doing good investment on this side with your company. Um, but I would definitely say yes. If your goal is to get in the house, you're debt free, got a fully funded emergency fund. you're already investing into a retirement account, and it

sounds like you're doing it very, very, very well. 22% is high. We only say 15%. So I would even go down to 15%, and then from there, you'll be good and gravy, man. But I like the fact of a young person talking about paying cash for a house. That's awesome, man. What? Yep. Man,

you got me excited. Cole, you got me excited, brother. That's how i like to end the show okay yes we need more people calling and calling in like that on the day randy show man i want to thank our producer james shout our associate producer and phone screener kelly daniel and i want to thank the number one um i call him counselor the one and only dr john for joining me on the show today it's always an honor to be with him. It's always an honor to talk to you, America. Now, don't forget, the caliber of your future will be determined in the choices you make.

You made the right choice today by listening to The Dave Ramsey Show with Dr. John Deloney and myself, Anthony O'Neill. This is James Childs, producer of The Dave Ramsey Show. On your smart speaker, you can add our skill by saying, Alexa, open the Ramsey Network skill. From there, you can listen to all our shows. Ask Dave money questions like, how do I invest my money? Or what is the debt snowball? Find out more at DaveRamsey.com slash smart speaker.