The Ramsey Show - App - Should I Really Pay Off the House? (Hour 3)

Episode Date: October 18, 2022

Dr. John Delony & Ken Coleman discuss: Paying off the house vs. investing, Pausing the baby steps for a career change, or while a spouse is out of work, How many savings accounts you should have, Dropping out of college. Have a question for the show? Call 888-825-5225 Weekdays from 2-5pm ET Want a plan for your money? Find out where to start: https://bit.ly/3nInETX Listen to all The Ramsey Network podcasts: https://bit.ly/3GxiXm6 Learn more about your ad choices. https://www.megaphone.fm/adchoices Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy

🎵 Live from the headquarters of Ramsey Solutions, broadcasting from the Pods Moving and Storage Studio, it's The Ramsey Show, where America hangs out to have a conversation about your life, your work, your relationships, your mental health, and your money. I'm John Deloney, joined here by Ken Coleman, and we're taking your calls on just about everything. The call is toll-free, and it's probably about what the advice is worth. 888-825-5225.

888-825-5225. Let's go out to Teresa in Des Moines, in Des Moines, Iowa. What's up, Teresa? Hi, thank you very much for taking my call. You got it. What's up? How can we help? I am a 56-year-old female, and I am single, and I've been single since 2003. So I pretty much raised my three children, went through school, became an RN, a registered nurse, got my BSN. I was a debt-free with college. Then I went back to get my BSN and graduated, or excuse me, my master's and graduated in 2013 and had $85,000 worth of student loan debt. Oh, wow.

Yeah. Yeah, I wish I would have heard about you guys a long time ago. So I feel like I'm a little bit behind. Just with a divorce and being a single mom, it was really hard to save. I worked two jobs, and being a nurse, I mean, I did what I could. But my question is right now, so last, probably 14 months ago, I just said, I'm going to go work. I'm going to work, work, work. So I worked probably six to seven 12-hour shifts a week for 45 days in a row.

And so all I've been doing is working for the past year so i went from 110 to like 250 000 wow yeah super excited but don't screw with a single mama with a goal in mind that's right we're very strong women. That's right. Yeah. And that's how I've raised my kids too. Pretty strong, good kids. So my question is, is pay the student loans off. And I have a house that is worth like 210 to 220,000.

I owe like 100,000 on it. So I'm wondering, I've got the student loans paid now. And so what do I do? I have a 4%, which I don't have a 15. I have a 30 year, which I know, but I have been paying like 10,000 extra a month. Pay it off. This year. So just go month. Pay it off. This year.

Pay it off. So just go ahead and pay it off. Okay, because I've been meeting with my financial advisor. I bet you were. Well, I never got, but one thing, I want to step in really quick because I didn't feel like there was an either or here. So should I, so what was the other side of this question? Well, he feels like since I have 4% that I should be putting more money away in mutual funds because I do have a 401k, I have a traditional Roth, and I have a Roth IRA.

So pardon me, there are a lot of numbers and I was trying hard to pay attention. Oh, I'm sorry. Do you have any debt other than your house right now? No, I have no debt. Last year, I just got out of everything. I just worked. Okay, so you are working on Baby Step 6, paying off

the house. That's the Baby Step that you're in, correct? Correct. Okay. And what your advisor is is saying pay the minimum on your house and put as much money as you can in your investments because your house note is at a four percent interest rate and your advisor can make more money right with you putting more money in the market so of course he has a financial interest in you putting money in the market yeah so no you, he has a financial interest in you putting money in the market. Yeah, so no, you walk the baby steps.

Okay? You're in baby step six. You're putting your 15%. Yeah, you put your 15% in, right? Put your 15% in, and then put every other penny on your house. Get that house paid off. Because here's what we're looking for.

We're solving for freedom. Right. We're solving for freedom right we're solving for no other liabilities do what i have 160 000 in liquid cash in the bank so that's why i'm not understanding okay hold on all right so we're gonna said that i'm behind no and so okay theresa i'm sure your financial advisor is a good dude, but we're going to stop listening to him. He didn't get a vote anymore. He didn't find a new advisor. So do you believe in the baby steps, right?

You've been walking them to the best of your ability? Well, hold on a second. And that's why I called you. All right. So listen, you shouldn't have $160,000 in cash. You should have in your emergency fund three to six months, whatever that number is. If you want six months, six months is good. So let's just walk through this. What is six months of your household

expenses? What's that number? Minus a mortgage. I have actually $30,000 put away for that. So you're telling me you have $160,000 above and beyond the $30,000? Correct. Are you keeping your mortgage because it feels snuggly? Do you like it? No. No, because this is what he's telling me. No, you've got to pay it off. John, she's got bad advice.

Excuse me, hemorrhoids. Pay it off. Pay it off. Pay it off. While I get John a tube of Preparation H, let's focus on what you do today. What you do today is you stop listening to your financial advisor. How much is the house mortgage? What's left on it?

$100,000. There's $100,000 on it, and it's worth $2,000. Listen, listen, stop. I want you to pay $100,000 today. Today. Okay. Put her on hold. Put her on hold.

I've just put her on hold. Here's the deal. You need to call your mortgage company, transfer the money, all right? You're free and clear before dinner. Yes. My gosh. All right? Now you've still got $60,000.

I want your neighbors asking, why is Teresa doing somersaults in the front yard? Because you don't owe anybody anything. And then you should fire your financial advisor and go to RamseySolutions.com and get one of our trusted Ramsey pros, okay? And they will help you with what to do with the 60 above and beyond the emergency fund. Invest that. You are debt-free. You're baby step seven before dinner time. And financial advisors, congratulations. You can work at 10Key. It's so fun to push buttons on the calculator and show somebody, well, if the return is this shit, you're talking at 10Key. It's so fun to push buttons on the calculator and show somebody, well, if the return is this, you're talking to a single mom who's busted her butt for the last 20 years,

and you're like, you know what? You're behind. Hold on, you're failing. Give me your money. I'll make it okay for you. Dude, I hope you get hemorrhoids. I'd punch him in the throat. Right in the throat.

Right in the Adam's apple. Boom. I'm not going to hit anybody. I just hope your insides fall out. Well, you don you get hemorrhoids. I'd punch him in the throat. Listen, man. Right in the throat. Right in the Adam's apple. Boom. I'm not going to hit anybody. I just hope your insides fall out. Well, you don't want hemorrhoids either. It's metaphorical. It is. It's metaphorical.

Listen, man. All this hemorrhoid talk. Solve for freedom. I don't care what your APR is. You want to be 65 years old and have no liabilities. That if your job goes away, if you're unable to work, if, if, if yes, we want a retirement, we're going to build that up. We're going to put 15% and we're going to put 15% in and the stock market's on sale. Great. You're going to have $60,000 to figure out how to,

how to put in that thing, but have no payments, have freedom for the first time in 20 years, you've worked too hard to have a bank telling you what to do with your life. God almighty, get a new financial advisor. You should be ashamed of yourself, dude. We'll be right back. Yeah, John's going to get to the pharmacy. We'll be back in a minute. so this is the ramsay show every time you hear someone do their debt-free scream on the show it's because at some point they said, I've had it. I'm not living like this anymore.

And when you get mad like that, and you do what they did, your life will change too. And right now, inflation and credit cards, all of it, it's killing you. You've been led to believe that you're not in control of your money. Wrong. You have to decide to control what you can control,

and that's you. Your thoughts and your actions. You have the power to control what you can control and that's you your thoughts and your actions You have the power to change your future and financial peace University will show you how this course will teach you the proven step-by-step plan that's helped nearly 10 million people beat debt master budgeting and build wealth and you can do it to Stop letting debt and money stress control your life. Say, I've had it, and take back your control. Start Financial Peace University at ramsaysolutions.com slash FPU. That's ramsaysolutions.com slash FPU.

All right, let's go out to Rachel in Pittsburgh. What's up, Rachel? Hey, guys. Thanks so much for taking my call. You got it. What's up? How can we help? I wanted to ask you guys about Baby Step 6. Hey, Rachel, talk directly into your phone for me. Is this any better?

Perfect, yes. Okay, awesome. Sorry. I wanted to ask you guys about Baby Step 6. Right now, my husband and I are working through 4, 5, and 6, and we have a 2-year-old son. I would really love to be able to be a stay-at-home mom with him and grow my business a little bit more, but right now the finances are just not working out to make that possible. So I wanted to reach out to you guys

because I've been stewing on it and see if you saw any other options there. We're both engineers. We bring in about 220 before taxes and we have about 390 left on our house to pay off. So we were originally thinking that we could, you know, go gazelle and tense on the house for five years and knock it out, but I'm just starting to feel like I'm running out of time to spend with my son.

Yeah. Are the plans, the numbers not adding up, or is the vision you had for that money not going according to plan? Those are two different things. Yeah, let me, so I hear $220,000. Yeah, that's a really good income, okay? And so what do you mean the numbers don't add up to where you could go home, be with your son, and kind of grow what I'm hearing is like a side hustle now? Is that correct? Correct.

Okay, so that's what john's asking if we went down to just one income my husband's income um we'd be at you know five grand a month coming in after taxes and after retirement and our mortgage is 3400 if we're paying on the 15-year. Okay. We have a 30-year, but we're just paying an extra. So how much do you make out of the $220? $110. We're pretty much split down the middle. Okay.

Well, what is the side hustle? What is that business? I have a teeny tiny little business where I'm a farmer florist and I grow flowers for bouquets and do wedding work in the summertime. This past summer, we had a short season since we moved, only about four months, but I was able to bring in 15 grand in revenue, probably around eight grand in profit. So not a whole lot of money, but I definitely have lots of ideas and think I could grow it if I had some more time at home and mental capacity. And then what's the payoff date on the house? If you guys stayed as is and you kept working what would what would be the anticipated payoff of the home i think um if we went gazelle and pencil on it it would be five years is what we're coming up with on paper how old is your son two oh yeah um john i mean here's what i think rachel we got all these false narratives.

Yeah, I think you have boxed yourself into an either-or situation. Definitely. You've done two things. You've boxed yourself into either this or that. And if it's this, I don't see my son until he's seven. And then he's only got,

oh gosh, 11 more years, and he goes to college, and my son is gone. That's one story you're telling yourself, right? The other story is I think you're tired being an engineer and you don't have an off ramp. You've been working your butt off to be an incredible woman in STEM and you don't have an off ramp. Yep. And can I, and it's absolutely right.

That's, John, you nailed it. That's why I'm hearing some false news. So I'm going to throw a scenario out at you. I'm not suggesting it, but I'm curious how you'll react, okay? So the issue for you not coming home to do what you really want to do, you know, try to grow the side hustle, be with your son, and John's pointed out you're already exhausted at what you're doing, is the mortgage payment.

That's the hurdle. I was going to say the third part is... I've got a fix for that. You guys have decent equity in the house, correct? How much? We just moved a year ago. We have about 160 in equity. Yeah.

Okay. We have a lot of land as part of it too so it's so here's here's what you've done rachel downsize the house i i i i'm not creating a world you can't afford yeah so for me what's most important is what i'm hearing john correct me if i'm wrong john sitting here with me hearing this but rachel what what I'm hearing is that what's most important is my son and the season with him and to kind of do my thing because I'm already exhausted over here and I'm exhausting myself all for a house and a piece of land that, to be honest with you, falls way down the priority chart. I'd sell the house. I would downsize my life because the only thing keeping you from doing this is the $3,400 if I heard that right mortgage payment. Is that correct?

Yeah. If it was gone today, what would you do? I don't know. I guess start over. I'm hesitant to do that because we didn't just move. I'm not telling you to do it. I'm helping you see what you're presenting to us as if you have no way out. And I think you do have a way out. It ain't going to be fun. You want it all at the same time. Yeah.

You just can't have it. Yeah. And it doesn't exist. And so we have to grieve one of a few things. We have to grieve the fact, and I just did this, and my wife and I are having this exact conversation, different lanes, but it has been my dream to have five to 10 acres since I was a small kid.

And I finally got it. And I did not know that that meant nine hours of mowing every other day. And I didn't know that chickens were... I just see this on HGTV. They just have chickens and they just look so nice. It looks easy, doesn't it? It's a pain, right?

I didn't know this. So we signed up for a life that now is costing us more than we thought. Not financially. It's costing us more time, more planning. When we go out of town, I travel a lot. So anyway... By the way, I'm not going to house-sit your chickens. You're welcome to come over. You just can't eat them. You're not that kind. But Rachel, so you've created a life that you wanted so bad and you want to be a stay-at-home

mom and you want to be a six-figure engineer and you want to have a side hustle. At some point, you're going to have to grieve the loss of one of those things to get the life that you want. Not all these different goals. You've met the goals the goals you're brilliant you can do it all and you can't right so which one of these things do you want to let go of yeah and by the way all of these let goes are temporary here's the issue rachel the answer is if i can answer for you rachel uh you don't want to give up any of them. I want to give you a – I know. So here's a theme for you. Amen to everything John said. I'm going to give you a quote from the legendary John Maxwell who once said,

you've got to give up to go up. And he's right, whether that's relationally, financially, spiritually, emotionally. You have to give up something to make progress in another area. And John has put the question before you. And I think you've got to wrestle with it, what matters most. And don't wrestle alone. Wrestle with your husband. That's why you all are teammates.

But you better choose the most important thing. What are you going to choose? Can I ask you guys one more option to what you would think about? Hold on. Let's do this. Let's do this. Stay on the line, Rachel. We're going to roll over to a break, and then we will get to your second question when we get back.

This is The Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225. We'll be right back. One of the most common pieces of advice I give folks trying to get out of debt is to sell the car. But it's important to sell the smart way by using CarWiser. CarWiser is a completely free service that gets you offers from all the top online dealerships instantly. Just enter your vehicle information and boom, you're ready to pick up an offer and get paid. CarWiser saves you hours of time and hassle. So go to carwiser.com slash Ramsey. That's carwiser.com slash Ramsey Show, 888-825-5225.

Going back to Pittsburgh to follow up with Rachel. She had a second question on the back end of her call, and we went to break. What's up, Rachel? What's your next question? Hey, John. I was just going to ask you what you and Ken thought about us piling up the money to kind of help with the transition from building up my side hustle more for a couple years to give us some margin. If you thought that would be sustainable or if that would be a good option. Can I ask you a question about your side hustle? Um, and I'm wandering into Ken's territory here, but anytime somebody says I'm a full-time engineer and then they have

dreams of just making floral arrangements for that feels more reactionary than passionate, right? So when you are making floral arrangements for weddings or for individuals or for businesses, is this just a response to the engineering work? This is something you can control creativity. You can put your hands on and you can deliver a smile to somebody. Why are you wanting, what is it about the side hustle you want to invest money in long term. I just love it. It gives me the juice, as Ken would say, that I don't really get day to day with my office job. Yeah, okay. Listen, just real quick, because we've got to get to some other calls.

I like the idea. I really do. I think it's a form of, you know, we have pauses throughout the baby steps, you know, for babies and things of that nature. And I think in this case, if you don't want to sell the house and you guys are going to be there long term with this land, then stockpiling for the transition, it's a very smart move. It's going to delay paying off the house, but you can jump right back on. So I don't have a problem with that. No, and I think this is a conversation you sit down

and instead of you and your husband saying, okay, we have to do this one or this one, turn it into an adventure and say, all right, let's come up with 50 different opportunities, 50 different ideas. There is no bad idea. Let's put them all on the board. He can go get another job.

You can get a part-time job. You can sell the land. You can move into a condo. You can start throwing everything on the board and then begin to peel them back, understanding that something has to give. Even if it's your picture of, I thought I was going to stay at home, and we're going to make six figures, and we're going to have this house on this land. At some part of the fairy tale isn't going to happen in this season of your life.

It will at some point. It will, but just not today. I've got to tell you, one of the things I love is she used a phrase that I use a lot on the King Coleman Show. Well, that's the answer to your question. Is this a reaction or is this something you feel deep? And so that's the phrase. If you've got the juice, man, like you can't stop thinking about it,

you want to do it, that's worthy of pursuing. So the key here is I saw a sign one time, John, and you just nailed this. I saw a sign. I was shopping with Stacey in some store in the mountains. It was a little craft store, those ones that I hate to go into, but you have to. And it said, you can have everything you want, just not at the same time. Yeah, I love it. Very simple little statement.

I think that's what's going on here. That's right. We've got to wrestle through the fact you can't have it all at the same time. That's right. That's right. All right, let's go to Kiara in Baltimore. What's up, Kiara? Hi.

So me and my husband, 22 years old, just celebrated our first year anniversary. Hey, congratulations. Thank you. And so we're on our debt payoff journey. And for his line of work, he does go out of work for about two months in December and just collects unemployment. It is like technically a layoff though. So I was wondering, should we pause baby step number two, paying off debt,

and just save the amount expected for, you know, bills and stuff in between now and December to prepare? Or I just don't feel comfortable trying to wait for unemployment to come through. Good for you. Good. So, Kiera, I have a yes and for you, okay? Okay. So I think you save, you pause momentarily and start saving for that, but with the eye on him finding part-time or what I would call a part-time, full-time job,

meaning in that season where his normal job is not working, then he goes and gets a full-time job that he can leave at any time. And it's just, it is what it is. So maybe he's knocking 40 hours out at Target or Walmart is my point so that we don't have to pause baby step two and so yes and I like the idea but let's let's start thinking wait a second what would have to be true for us not to pause baby step two and the answer to that is he knows the seasonal schedule true or false right yeah so we know Christmas is coming every year, correct? Correct.

So we know that I got to go get a job for two or three months every year. Yes. Hey, why does he want to just sit at home for two months and pause getting out of debt? Well, he used to do DoorDash, and that was kind of a thing that he doesn't want to do. And he expects that he'll have some income we just don't know to what capacity um yeah but you didn't answer John's question here's here's what I'm struggling with seeing two months of getting paid I mean being laid off for seasonal work and not having five jobs lined up ferociously and also having another plan to not work a job where I get laid off for two months every year. Becoming maniacal.

Here's the thing that I don't know if y'all have wrapped your head around yet. Y'all are broke. And you're newlywed. And this is a scary season because you're one or two things going sideways. And my promise to you is they will go sideways, whatever are you're right on the margin man and this isn't a time to say all right we're young and silly let's just we got we got two months off let's just dude this is the time to just bust it and set yourself up so you don't have to you don't get two months to chill. You get years to chill on the back end of this. You know what I mean?

Right. Maniacal. Work, work, work. Get this debt paid off. How much debt do you owe? We owe about $47,000 now. We started in August, and we've been able to. We just did our update, and it was $52,000, and now we're down to $47,000.

Great. Cool. You're getting after it now we're down to $47,000. Great. Cool. You're getting after it. We've been crushing it. We've been moving. Yeah, trying. Let's get maniacal.

Wild. You can sit down and say, honey, I've got some good news for you. Guess what you're not doing for those two months? Taking any time off. In fact, you're going to get two jobs plus three. You don't want to drive? Aw, that's a choice for a future husband because this husband has $47,000 in debt we've got to pay off. This just isn't the season for it. I don't feel like doing that. Get after it.

Here's the mindset switch here, Kiera. You guys have to go from instead of saying, well, we have two months where he's laid off. Should we pause the baby steps instead of going in those two months where i'm off from my regular job how much money can i make i bet you can make twelve thousand dollars let's go crazy yeah like change the entire focus of the two months to go all right now i can go work three jobs because I could tell those folks, hey, sorry, it's seasonal. If you want me back next year, I'll be here. But if not, deuces, I'm out.

I go back to my job. It's a mindset between this is a sprint, as John said, and those two months aren't a, well, I don't know what I'm going to do. And it's two months of ferocious, as John said, maniacal activity. And now we're getting ahead. I love that idea with let's let's set a short-term sprint goal right let's do ten thousand dollars let's into two months let's be down to 37 000 yeah let's just get after it yeah and momentum just

builds on itself it's uh it's it's a fun thing but i appreciate the call and congratulations hey one year in uh the first year anniversary, that's always a big milestone. And wishing the best for you guys and your marriage. All right, John, if I could offer people direction and clarity to a career that is fulfilling, meaning they're doing something they're good at, they're doing something they love, and they're creating results that matter, all for $10, would that be a good deal? It's a great deal. It's a great deal. Dude, you made me nervous for a second. No. I was thinking about that one. I'm thinking, golly, dude. It's a good deal? It's a great deal. It's a great deal. Dude, you made me nervous for a second.

No. I was thinking about that one. I'm thinking, golly, dude. It's a good deal. You get paid off of these. You sure are putting that low. Well, I have a bone to pick with Dave on this one, but we have offered the Get Clear Career Assessment. Our assessment, we've sold it to tens and tens of thousands of people.

It's a $30 product, and now in the month of October at ramsaysolutions.com, it's available for only $10. It takes 20 minutes. You're going to get a detailed report on what you're really good at in work, what work you really love to do, and then what motivates you. Imagine you put all three of those together. You get some real purpose and direction. You can get it now, the Get Clear Career Assessment. $10. It's not going to last long. RamseySolutions.com. And for those of you who are planning your New Year's resolution, this is a good place to Psalm 34, 4-5. today's scripture of the day is psalm 34 4 through 5 i sought the lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed chuck norris says running from your fear can be more painful than facing it, for better or worse. Nothing like a good Chuck Norris.

I was going to say, easy for Chuck to say. Walker, Texas Ranger's not afraid of anybody. I know. He doesn't do push-ups. He pushes the earth down. Chuck Norris is amazing. There's like a whole bunch of those out there. It's a sub-genre, yes. You know what's funny?

I never actually saw one episode of Walker, Texas Ranger. I like old school Chuck. Like old school Chuck from his actually action films. It's like he took on a whole persona with that show. Dude, there's something about wearing jeans and a button-up and a cowboy hat and doing karate. It's incredible. Speaking of which texas listen

that's the hard-hitting content you get on this show do us a huge favor yeah um yeah so you want more of that you want more breakdowns of chuck norris and his tv characters no here's the deal um every show is out there asking you to buy stuff we're always asking you to hey come to our live events by fpu not everybody's in a position to that, but if this show has helped play a role in your money transformation and healing your marriage, helping you find work that matters, here's a way you can help other people get that same info by buying nothing. All we ask you to do is hit subscribe. All we ask you to do, whether it's podcast or on YouTube, please leave a five star review, letting folks know, hey, this is a good show.

It helps kick the show up into the algorithm, and it gets it into the hands of more people. Share it. Okay? Share with a friend. That's right. If somebody says, I can't, I can't, I can't, forward them the episode that you're listening to that inspired you and say, yes, you can. Yeah, you can. Yeah, please leave your reviews and your five-star reviews and subscribe.

All right, let's go out to Chicago and talk to Claire. What's up, Claire? Hi, thanks for taking my call. You got it. What's up? Well, I'm calling because I've recently come into the Dave Ramsey kind of clan. Welcome to the gang. My husband and I are debt-free, but we're kind of slowly trying to work through the baby steps.

So we're on, we're really blessed. I think already like step again, cause I'm kind of still learning step five or six. We just had a son about a few months ago. We've already got a five 29 plan started for him. Both already contributing 15% to our retirement fund. You're all in,

all in, all in. We are all in, all in already. We've got the three to six months savings, $1,000 savings, all good there. Awesome. My question for you today is just about our savings accounts. We've got multiple types of savings, one for car, one for travel, one for house, plus our three to six months and the 1,000 emergency and, you know, just the checking account. So I don't know if we should really kind of be focusing in all of our savings, taking it all out of those and putting it towards the mortgage. We do have, in addition to our savings account, we have, you know, the Roth, we both have Roths plus our retirement through work. So just was wondering if maybe we should also take a, we have about $14,000 in a savings through that we're investing right now and didn't know if we should be putting that towards a mortgage and everything else we have towards those from those other small savings accounts for house for car emergencies okay here's what here's what i hear okay tell me if i'm wrong you and your

husband went bananas b-a-n-a-n-a-s y'all went for it and there was a lot of energy and a lot of like you all were going going going and then you were debt free and you didn't know what to do with all that unused energy and so you created chaos now you've got 14 different accounts doing 14 different things

you're still following the plan but you're you're trying to keep that adrenaline going by making your life way more complicated than it needs different things. You're still following the plan, but you're trying to keep that adrenaline going by making your life way more complicated than it needs to be. Do y'all need a new car in the next two to three years? No, we don't. Okay. Then I would not have a car fund. Are y'all saving up to buy a house? Nope. We already have a house. We have everything done except for the mortgage. There you go. So see what I would maybe have, like George and I disagree on this, and that's fine. It's just how our households run.

George Campbell has his emergency fund in an online savings account, okay, in a high-yield savings account. I have mine in my same checking account. I just don't mess with it, and it just is a line item. It's a special account underneath my master checking account, okay? I would get rid of all of these different accounts and all these different banks and consolidate your money and let your money do one or two or three things at a time, not 15. So you're putting your 15% into retirement. You're going to pay your house down and you're

going to put a little bit of money into the 529 every month and that's it and what y'all are going to have to do is learn how to live and love your life not running from the lion that's chasing you you see what i'm saying yep nope certainly do am i right just kind of yeah yeah okay um simplify at some point you can become addicted to the adrenaline and the cortisol and you're probably also somebody who has imaginary conversations with people that you're never going to fight with but you have it in your head and you win every one of them and your husband probably has a bunch of spreadsheets and schemes and plant right am i right right stop stop i'm i'm

actually the one with the spreadsheet okay Okay. Yeah. Reverse it. And he's the one having imaginary conversations. I'll tell my boss. You're not going to tell your boss anything. You're never going to. So stop spinning yourselves up. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Now it's about peace.

Now it's a life that we can smile and enjoy and kick our feet up because of the hard work that we've done. See what I'm saying? Yeah. And let's make a plan to get this mortgage paid off. And the way you guys are so far ahead of everybody, y'all are going to be fine financially. Just keep investing your 15%. Keep putting some money in the 529 and get that house paid off. Is that cool? Sounds great. Simplify, simplify, simplify. You are way ahead of the curve. Ken, what do you got? You got it. I think you did it. All right. Let's go to Zane in Boulder, Colorado.

Hey, Zane, what's up, man? Mr. Coleman, Dr. D, how you guys doing today? We are rocking on to the break of dawn, my brother. How can we help? Well, I'm thinking about dropping out of college, and I wanted to get some words of wisdom. Okay. What are you going to drop to? I was thinking about opening my own business. What kind of business?

I'd be a blower door verification for residential houses. Okay, and what is the reason that you want to start that business and thus you've got to drop out of college to do it well my ultimate goal was to own my own business um where i'm offering a trusted service so my first goal was to finish college and be a financial advisor. Okay. What changed? School part. And also paying for that. Meaning you hate it and don't think you need it or you can't afford it? What is the big driver of this? I could probably afford it. It's more of not liking the school part.

Yeah. Well, I got great news for you. You don't have to have a college diploma to be a financial advisor. Now, you do have to get some education in the form of certifications and whatever state-by-state requirements are there, but you don't have to have a diploma. So this feels reactionary to me, and I'm all for following your heart, but I don't hear a lot of heart.

I hear a head idea that, well, I always kind of wanted to work for myself and the school thing is not me and by the way i'm okay with that i i'm i'm okay with someone going college isn't for me but it's not just a feeling it has to be fact-based and so if you want to be a financial advisor we wouldn't be thinking about whatever the services that you describe that that's not in the That's an idea just to let me be free and work for me. That's not a good enough of a reason to drop. Now, if I drop out to then put my time and effort into becoming trained and certified and with an eye on getting to work for a financial advisor and working my way up, and this is something that I really, really want to do because I see a sense of mission behind the results of helping people

with their finances. I love coaching and advising people. And I happen to be a pretty good communicator and go with numbers. Check, check, check. I'm okay with that. If not, stay there until we find the thing. Hang on the line. You asked the best question. Go ahead. Do you give something? Yeah. I just want to give him the get clear assessment uh i want you to take this assessment and figure out what are we moving to i love that question we're not what are we running from what are we going to great question ken hey that wraps up today's show thanks to austin ben james andrew the whole gang and thanks to you america for tuning in we'll catch you next time on The Ramsey Show. Hey, it's John Deloney, co-host of The Ramsey Show.

Did you know over 18 million people listen to The Ramsey Show every week? A lot of those people listen on one of our 600-plus radio stations across the country. To find a station near you, go to RamseySolutions.com slash show.